Lotus disappointed with Kimi Raikkonen after Indian Grand Prix

Kimi Raikkonen

Lotus’ Trackside Operations Director Alan Permane has expressed his disappointment with Kimi Raikkonen after the driver forced his teammate Romain Grosjean off the track during the Indian Grand Prix.

Raikkonen was robustly defending his position against a far faster Grosjean and also shouted at the team radio when questioned about his decision.

“Don’t f***ing shout at me,” Raikkonen shouted at the team radio when he was asked to get out of the way of Grosjean. Grosjean eventually ended the race in third despite starting in seventeenth but Permane didn’t hide his disappointment.

“It was a little disappointing, to be honest. He knew his tyres were finished and there was no need to have a battle. Romain was racing hard and I’m sure we’ll have a chat in the office about it,” he said.

Meanwhile, team principal Eric Boullier said that the chaos was due to the misunderstanding between the drivers.

“It was a bit of a misunderstanding because Kimi didn’t expect Romain to be so fast and we then had to cool them down on the radio. When you have ten laps to go, you never know how much your laps might go,” Boullier said.