Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen believes he could be in for a good weekend at the Chinese Grand Prix after impressing during practice for tomorrow’s race.
The flying Finn set the second fastest time of the first day in his Enstone-built car during the opening sessions for round three of the FIA Formula 1 World Championship.
He lapped the Shanghai International Circuit in 1min 35.492secs during a soft tyre run in the afternoon session – to split the Ferraris of pacesetter Felipe Massa, who was quickest by 0.152, and Fernando Alonso.
Rainkkonen said: “If you look at the lap time it looks to have been a pretty OK day.
“For sure there are things we have to improve and you never know what will happen tomorrow, but it’s a reasonable start to the weekend.
“We seem to be happy with the soft tyres and maybe not as happy with the harder ones.
“We’ve still got time to improve and we’re certainly not struggling, so it could be a good weekend.”
Teammate Romain Grosjean was hampered on his flying lap using the soft tyres, ending his second session with the 12th fastest time.
He said: “Today was not so easy for me and I’m still looking for the right set-up.
“I ran with the new exhaust package in the morning and the older one in the afternoon to try to help find where improvements can be made.
“It’s a new day tomorrow and we’ll hopefully be able to have the car as I’d like it for a strong result this weekend.”
Valtteri Bottas and Pastor Maldonado were off the pace in 16th and 18th respectively in their Grove-based Williams.
Bottas said: “I feel we have moved a little bit forward since Malaysia, but we’ll see tomorrow where we are compared to the others in qualifying set-up.
“We need to work hard to maximise what we have here.”
Marussia’s Jules Bianchi was 19th, with rookie teammate Max Chilton propping up the standings in 22nd after suffering an oil pressure issue that restricted him to five laps in second practice.
Also left trailing were the Leafield-based Caterhams of Giedo van der Garde and Charles Pic in 20th and 21st respectively.
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