Lotus hoping to consolidate their position

BARCELONA, May 10, 2012 (AFP) - Highly-rated French driver Romain Grosjean and Finnish star Kimi Raikkonen believe they must deliver faultless
performances if Lotus are to challenge for a win at this weekend's Spanish Grand Prix.

Raikkonen, world champion in 2007, and 26-year-old Grosjean finished second and third respectively behind Germany's two-time defending world champion Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull at the last race in Bahrain.

In spite of this, both drivers believe they will have to get everything perfect to have a chance at winning races this year.

"We are in good shape, we had a good race in Bahrain but the base of the car in the race is good," said Grosjean, who last week set the fastest time in
three days of testing by the teams at Mugello, Italy. 

"We know the team need to improve some areas but honestly to win a race this year would be to get everything right: the quality, the race, and the
start.

"Because it is so tight it is very difficult to predict what the result will be on Sunday and if we were to have a bet we would get a lot of different
points of view."

Raikkonen, who returned to the circuit after a brief flirtation with the world rally championship, echoes his French team-mate's sentiments, stressing
that the competition between teams is so fierce that the smallest mistake can be costly.

"I don't know how it will go, it is difficult to say before the weekend starts," said the 32-year-old.

"The teams are close and if everything goes smoothly we can be up there, but small difficulties mean you can be further back so we will try and do
everything right."