Kimi Räikkönen to miss final two races of 2013 - Lotus find themselves minus one driver, as Kimi heads to hospital
Published by Christine
This is F1Minute - Kimi Räikkönen to miss final two races of 2013.
The Lotus team have confirmed that Kimi Räikkönen will not be racing the final two events of the 2013 season, as he will be having back surgery. Kimi's bad back has already been a problem this year, with the driver suffering through Singapore qualifying and the race in some pain.
Now, with an imminent move to the Ferrari team for the 2014 season, Kimi waves an early goodbye to Lotus. The relationship between team and driver has not been the best of late, anyway, with Kimi complaining about a lack of payment and less-than-savoury radio messages during a race.
Meanwhile, the Lotus team have not confirmed who will replace Kimi for the US and Brazil races, although Davide Valsecchi would be the likely candidate as third driver. When Romain Grosjean missed a race last year, it was Jérôme D'Ambrosio as third driver who stepped in to replace him.
So, best wishes to Kimi and hopefully he'll make a full and swift recovery to be back in fighting form at Ferrari next year.
