Saturday: Ferrari hopes to be in the top 10 during the race

Fernando Alonso – 15th and 9th

We knew it would be a difficult qualifying session, and that’s what happened. We managed to get into Q3, staying ahead of Vettel by a few hundredths. Then, from Q2 to Q3, the wind changed direction, and that was penalizing. The car is what it is, and the improvements made here have not been sufficient to make a leap forward in terms of performance, so the position more or less corresponds to our current potential.

We cannot be happy to be one second off pole position, but all we can do is work and try to reduce that gap. If we do a good job, then we can think about victory; otherwise, no. But I remain optimistic, even in 2010, we were behind the best, but we were leading the championship before the last race…

The starting grid is truly exciting and astonishing, with two Mercedes, a Sauber, and a Lotus ahead of all the others. We cannot afford to make mistakes because we don’t have the best car: if we manage things perfectly, as we did in Australia and Malaysia, then I believe we can score big points.

Felipe Massa – 18th and 12th

On one hand, I’m obviously not thrilled about not being able to qualify for Q3, but on the other hand, I have to be satisfied with my position if I consider my position this morning during free practice 3. This afternoon, the situation improved, the car had much more grip and I managed to be more competitive, but I wouldn’t know why. The changes in track conditions probably helped.

We hope to continue this way tomorrow afternoon and achieve a good result: we really need it at the moment! I want to have a normal race, a calm race where I can do my job properly and score some points. I don’t have any yet, and it’s time to remove that zero from the standings.