Sunday: Alonso and Ferrari have not given up

Fernando Alonso – 2nd:

« We can beat Red Bull, but at the moment, we still don’t have a car capable of winning. Once again this year, we saw that in the race the situation was much better than in qualifying. A great start, a great first lap, good top speed, and good tire management allowed, with me driving at 120% during the 60 laps, to achieve this second place. We did what we could, as in every race: if, at the end of the championship, we win, then no one can say it was because of others’ mistakes but because we did our best. We will already have some new developments in Abu Dhabi: let’s hope we can take a step forward because it will already be important to start gaining points there. There are 75 points left to win, which is huge. I remain optimistic even though we are all aware that we need to improve our performance, especially in qualifying.

I don’t know if it was my best performance of the year as it’s always difficult to choose. I’m more inclined to pick the one in Valencia or Monza, but this one is definitely in that category: I attacked from start to finish, perhaps taking a few risks to overtake compared to previous races.

Today, after the start, I immediately tried to attack the McLarens by getting into their slipstream. They were fighting among themselves and maybe they forgot about me, and I managed to overtake at least one of the two. Then, I also managed to overtake Button, just a few laps later, but the time lost during those few laps allowed the Red Bulls to widen the gap. In the second stint, I took full advantage of Webber’s KERS issues to overtake him: once again, we saw that anything can happen and that races are always long and challenging…

Felipe Massa – 6th:

« It was a really intense fight, from start to finish. After about 20 laps, I was told from the pit wall that I needed to try to save fuel, so I ended up doing more than half the race without being able to go full out, and I can assure you that it was absolutely not easy because Kimi was always very close to me.

This is not the result I wanted, but these are important points for the Constructors’ Championship. The time lost in Free Practice 2 cost me dearly mainly because I couldn’t optimize our package.

Regarding the fight with Kimi after the pit stops, I managed to come out ahead of him, but I let him pass at turn 3 because he was still very close and I wanted to have the DRS on the straight. I think he realized it but it was already too late, I had the advantage and managed to overtake him again.

Now, we’re going to Abu Dhabi, which is somewhat like a second home race for Ferrari since we have the amazing theme park [Ferrari World, ed.]. Hopefully, we’ll have some updates on the car and can secure a better result than sixth.