Lotus boss Eric Boullier apologises for team's radio conversation with Kimi Raikkonen

Eric Boullier apologises for profanity

Lotus boss Eric Boullier has apologised to the fans for the profanity used during the radio conversation with Kimi Raikkonen.

Kimi was asked by trackside operations manager Permane to “move out of the ****ing way” while Romain Grosjean was trying to overtake him. Kimi was struggling with his tyres and responded with some profanity of his own and then explained that he was in a fast corner and it wouldn’t be easy to let Grosjean to make a move on him.

Boullier admitted that the conversation was inappropriate and apologised for it.

“Romain was two seconds per lap faster than Kimi at that time, so it was not even a team order,” said Boullier.

“By asking Kimi to let Romain pass, we just made the obvious choice, as Massa could have stolen our podium.

“With hindsight, this radio message could have been sent in a less emotional way.

“There was a lot of tension, a lot of potential technical problems, and some of the words that flew around were simply not appropriate.

“I know that quite a few people were surprised and I can only apologise for that on behalf of the team.”