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Lotus trackside operations director Alan Permane has revealed that driver Romain Grosjean understands the team order to swap position with teammate Kimi Raikkonen.
Grosjean was told by the team to give the second spot to Raikkonen which left the driver disappointed in the closing stages of the race. This was the third time in the season that Grosjean had to let Raikkonen overtake him after Britain and Germany.
“He was annoyed – and justifiably. We have let Kimi past him a couple of times this year, and those have been with good reason when we have had a shot of overtaking. We did it at the Nurburgring where we thought Kimi had a shot of beating [Sebastian] Vettel, and we did it at Silverstone midway through the race when Kimi was much quicker,” Permane told AUTOSPORT.
“But there wasn’t a realistic chance of beating Vettel today and that is why they were racing to the end. Romain was probably frustrated with himself, and that is why I put a little message out at the end to calm him down. Kimi got lucky, but Kimi puts himself in a position to make the use of that luck, so good for him as well. For the team it really doesn’t matter. We made a big haul of points on Mercedes and Ferrari today, which is great,” Permane added.
