Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen is confident they have closed the gap to the front of the grid, when compared to their pace at the end of 2012.
The Finn finished fourth quickest during FP2, just over four tenths slower than Sebastian Vettel’s best lap – but he feels the race will be a completely different story on Sunday.
“I think even since the last races [of 2012] it feels like we are a bit closer maybe,” he said.
“Everybody has times quite close to each other and it’s only the first Friday, so we’ll see how it goes at the first two races and go from there.
“For sure we can improve also, but they [Red Bull] were fast on the harder tyres also so you expect that they would have been a bit faster on the super-soft.
“But you never know, some of the teams today improved so much with the super-softs. But it is what it is and the race will be a different story and it’s only the first Friday.”
