Saturday: Ferrari aims for the podium with Alonso, points with Massa
From the first laps, Ferrari knew that the pace of the F2012 was not as good as in Monza. Nevertheless, Fernando Alonso's fifth place provides a certain optimism within the Scuderia, which hopes to finish on the podium, while Felipe Massa, struggling with his tires, will have to score points with a view to the Constructors' Championship.
Fernando Alonso – 3rd and 5th:
« Today, the pole position was clearly out of reach. Hamilton was on another planet. We have to settle for 5th place, but that doesn’t mean we don’t hope to do better tomorrow. Our goal is the podium. The result more or less matches what we expected after yesterday, given that we weren’t particularly fast in the afternoon. The only surprise tonight is Maldonado. It’s quite unexpected to see him on the front row. Here the performance difference between the two types of tires is probably the greatest in the entire championship, between half a second and two seconds, which can be an important factor for tomorrow as well. It’s true that the softs can last longer, but it’s also true that with such a difference, the super-softs can be an interesting option. I expect to see a lot of stops, particularly due to degradation.
Honestly, before arriving in Singapore I expected more, but we quickly realized that we should approach this Grand Prix on the defensive. The race will be very long, very tough physically and mentally because you have to be constantly focused with no room for the slightest mistake. The smallest error can be costly on the track. Reliability will also be important, and the number one priority will be to finish in the best possible position.
Felipe Massa – 6th and 13th:
« It was a very difficult qualifying. I really struggled to do a good lap, especially suffering in the last sector where my tires were slipping and therefore degrading. It’s a problem I had yesterday and we weren’t able to fix it. Hopefully, we can do something for the race, otherwise it will be really tough. We need to look closely at the strategy, see which tires to use at the start of the race. There’s a lot of difference in terms of speed between the two compounds but both seem to degrade significantly. The goal will be to finish the race in the points, which will clearly not be easy but we will do our utmost for that. All the improvements we brought here didn’t work as we hoped, which certainly doesn’t help. We need to understand why, with a view to the rest of the season. »
