Spanish GP: Kimi Raikkonen expects business as usual from Lotus

Although Lotus showed some strong race pace during Friday practice, and has managed to deliver a step forward with its qualifying form, he is not getting carried away about his prospects.

"I think it is going to be normal chances," said Raikkonen, who starts fourth. "We have to make a good start and then try to make the best laps.

"Mercedes is consistently not as strong in the races as they are in qualifying, so we'll do our best and see where we end up."

Raikkonen said that he was pretty happy with how qualifying had panned out, and that it was no shock for his outfit not to have the single lap pace of Mercedes.

"It has been pretty OK all weekend," he said of the car. "For sure we didn't have the speed of Mercedes, but we have seen that in the last few races they are very strong in qualifying so we did pretty okay.

"It is very close between the cars here, and you really have to make the best out of it. I think it is pretty OK. We are a bit better than we were in the last race."

Although Lotus has shown itself to be easier on its tyres than other teams, Raikkonen is unsure if his outfit will be able to get away with one less stop in the race.

"I don't know what the others are doing and don't know our plan yet. We see what we are going to do, and how it is at the beginning of the race. I don't think we can do less stops than the others."