Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates: Lotus chairman Gerard Lopez has played down the rift between Kimi Raikkonen and a member of the technical staff at last weekend's Indian Grand Prix.
Raikkonen was by trackside operations director Alan Permane not to hold up teammate Romain Grosjean as they almost bumped into each other battling for third place. Grosjean ended up taking third place, with Raikkonen finishing seventh.
Raikkonen was absent for media duties at the Abu Dhabi GP on Thursday and only arrived for Friday's first practice session, fuelling speculation of a fall-out.
But Lopez says on the team's website that "this was just one exchange taking a matter of seconds" during "the course of a tense moment in a race."
Raikkonen will leave Lotus for Ferrari next season.
