Montreal: Kimi Räikkönen equalled Michael Schumacher’s record of consecutive points finishes as he endured a difficult Canadian Grand Prix. Romain Grosjean fought through the field to temporarily occupy a points placing, before an unexpected second stop dropped him to 13th place from his back of the grid start in Montréal.
Kimi falls to third place in the Drivers’ Championship, with Fernando Alonso now in second, 12 points ahead of him. The team drops to fourth in the Constructors’ Championship, with Mercedes 20 points ahead in third.
Kimi Räikkönen, who finished ninth, said that it's been a bad weekend, but at least they managed to score a few points. “My race didn’t start very well and then my brakes were fading with the pedal going soft; similar to the problem we had on Friday. It wasn’t ideal but at least the brakes were good enough to slow me down for the corners. Unfortunately though it meant I lost a lot of time and wasn’t able to attack, plus we lost a few seconds in the pit stop which obviously didn’t help either. Most of my race was just following the cars in front and defending from those behind, so not the most enjoyable day nor the most enjoyable result. It’s been a bad weekend, but at least we scored a few points.”
Romain Grosjean, said, “It was always going to be a tough race coming from the back, but it’s still disappointing to miss out on the points. Things were looking good until we switched to the option tyres, but they dropped off far quicker than we expected which forced us to stop again. Sadly that effectively put an end to our race as by that time there was no way back. After a promising start on Friday it’s not been the best weekend, but we had good pace last year at Silverstone so we’ll come back looking to put things right.”
Eric Boullier, Team Principal, said: "Today was certainly character building. On the plus side, Romain drove a measured and mature race through the field and should have finished in the points had we not had to make a second stop, which wasn’t to our original plan. Kimi had a frustrating day, but still scored some points. We couldn’t show the pace we wanted this weekend and will be all the more focused when we get to Silverstone as we are obviously very keen to get our championship challenge back on track.”
