Raikkonen still struggling to find optimum comfort in Lotus cockpit

Mar.16 (F1 Media) Kimi Raikkonen experimented with a new power steering system on his Lotus E20 in free practice but will carry on with the existing steering rack for the Australian Grand Prix despite struggling to get good feeling from the car.

“We tried a different steering rack in the first session,” he said. “It would have been fine to run, but we knew that the base system would be better. The set-up we have now is working well, it may take a while before we get it perfect but we'll make the best of it.”

Raikkonen added that the wet conditions at the start of the afternoon session, and the abbreviated running time, meant that not much had been learned on day one of the race weekend at Albert Park. "We didn't really learn much from today due to the weather, but it's the same for everyone," he said. "Hopefully the weather will be better tomorrow and we'll be happier after qualifying. I didn't push too hard today; if it's dry tomorrow we'll have a better idea of what we need to do."

Raikkonen completed just seven laps in session two and finished 18th, while Romain Grosjean ended the day after 11 afternoon laps. Afterwards technical director James Allison said that the reward of limited data was not worth the risk of an accident.

“At this time of year your cupboards are not overflowing with spare parts so it would be foolhardy to risk damaging anything unnecessarily. The rest of the weekend is predicted to be dry, so discretion was the better part of valour. This meant we stayed in the box for most of the day. When it did look sensible to venture out on track we did so with both drivers and the E20 looked solid in the second session with a high fuel load.”