Kimi Raikkonen: “We are not as fast as we should be…”

Kimi Raikkonen’s chances of maintaining his challenge for the title could take a battering in Singapore this weekend after a disappointing Friday for the Lotus driver.

Raikkonen finished FP2 in 12th place, some 2s off the front running pace. Team mate Romain Grosjean was only 10th and 0.2s faster than the Finn.

“It was not the easiest day, we don’t have enough grip for some reason,” said Raikkonen. “I guess we’re lacking downforce. And it seems to be a bit difficult, at least today. It’s just not quick. Maybe we are not improving as the others [are].

“The same issues are there on both tyres. When you put new tyres it always feels better for the beginning. I think we can improve for tomorrow, but we’re not going to find unfortunately two seconds.

“Usually we improve on Saturday time wise, but like I said we can’t catch up two seconds from today to the front, and they will improve also. It just shows that we are not as fast as we should be. Hopefully we can find something, and be a bit more happy than we are at the moment.”

Although the car appeared to be better with high fuel, Kimi was not convinced:

“I don’t know. It felt OK at the beginning, and the rear went away.”

Asked about his title chances, he said: “If we keep doing like this we’re not going to have any chance, but we have to try to improve. There’s still quite a few races left, so hopefully we can be stronger than today.”