Saturday: Ferrari and Alonso fall just short of the McLarens

Fernando Alonso – 4th and 5th

I am happy with this qualification because I think it might have been my best lap in Q3 all year. I was at 120%, taking risks in some corners, but it was the best way to hope to fight for the top 5 positions. If I had done a normal lap, I would have finished in the same position, but half a second behind the two McLarens, rather than less than a tenth. Of course, if I had been ahead of Hamilton and Button, it would have been a whole different story, but it didn’t happen that way and there’s no reason to say we were unlucky.

I am convinced that the podium is within our reach. Generally, we perform better in the race than in qualifying, and there’s no reason why that shouldn’t be the case here. We will try to gain a few places at the start, even though there isn’t much distance to the first corner on this track. Then, we will try to make the most of our strategy and a possibly slower tire degradation compared to some of our opponents.

It’s a very challenging race for the mechanical parts of the car, and the safety car often comes into play: we will see what happens, but I repeat, I am confident in our chances of finishing on the podium.

Felipe Massa – 8th and 6th

Sixth is definitely not the result we were hoping for, but we have to accept it. Now, we have to think about the race, which is not going to be easy: tire degradation is significant, both with the softs and the super softs, and we will have to be able to adapt to it as much as possible. I think that, more than ever, having the right strategy will be the key to having a good race. We are definitely more competitive than we were at Monza.

Today, it wasn’t easy to complete the ideal lap, and even though the car has significantly improved since the last practice session, I still experienced a lot of oversteering, especially when the tires overheated in the second and third sectors. Regarding the incident with Hamilton, honestly, I don’t understand why he was so eager to overtake since we were all on our out-lap and there was nothing to gain by doing so.

Pat Fry

« When reading the results, one might say they reflect the current hierarchy, but it is normal, when the gaps are so small between those fighting for pole position, for there to be a hint of disappointment. If we look at the gap with the pole position, we can say that, on a circuit that requires downforce and using Pirelli’s softest tires, we have returned to the situation we saw before, for example in Germany or Hungary, whereas at Spa and Monza we struggled more.

The start will be important tomorrow, an area in which we have fared quite well recently: we will therefore try to repeat that in order to gain a few places.

Then, it will be important to see how the tires behave, which will be a decisive factor for the strategy. On this track, you must not put a foot wrong because the slightest mistake can easily send you into the barriers. So we can expect all kinds of scenarios and we’ll need to be smart to exploit every opportunity that might arise.