Sunday: Alonso saves the day for Ferrari

Fernando Alonso – 5th:

« We knew it would be a very complicated race and I’m happy to have managed to bring back useful points for the team. I got a great start and managed some overtaking maneuvers early in the race and then, after the safety car intervention, we had a good battle with Maldonado: when I saw that he made a mistake, I breathed a sigh of relief because he had been very close to me for a few laps. I was slower than him and all I could do was defend my position, using KERS in some specific spots. I’m sorry for him because it’s really a shame to finish a race in that way.

Regarding the positive points to remember, there would be the start, the stops, and the strategy. Today, the car was better than yesterday and we were closer to the leaders. However, we still have a lot of work to do to catch up with those in front of us in terms of performance, not only McLaren and Red Bull, but also Mercedes and Lotus. We are probably one second away from pole position and there are seven or eight teams that are very close to each other. In a way, this is good news because if we can improve by a few tenths, we will gain a few positions.

Next week, it will be the trial by fire because Sepang is a very demanding circuit, for the cars and for the tires.

Felipe Massa – Retirement

« It was a really rotten weekend for me. Already yesterday, I was suffering because the car was poorly balanced, and today was probably even worse because after a few laps, I was struggling with the tires. I got off to a great start and managed to gain a few places, so I was hoping to finish in the points. We tried to move forward the first stop, but we also had problems with my second set of soft tires: the car was sliding, and the tire degradation was even greater. I wouldn’t say I was driving aggressively, and I was actually trying not to be too hard on the tires, but there was nothing I could do. Even on mediums, the situation didn’t change. We need to work to understand why we couldn’t reproduce the good balance of the car, as we did, for example, in Barcelona.

Regarding the incident with Senna, I think we can consider it a racing accident. A Toro Rosso tried to overtake me on the outside of turn 3 and Bruno had better traction on the inside, so we went into turn 4 side-by-side: that’s where we collided and you know the rest.

Pat Fry – Technical Director:

Based on what we saw this weekend, our race pace is a bit better than in qualifying. Today, Fernando had a very good race and managed to bring home some valuable points. It’s unfortunate for Felipe: we need to try to understand why his car didn’t respond well yesterday and today; we saw even more of the consequences today.

Our two drivers had a good start and handled the first corner well, immediately regaining the positions lost yesterday afternoon: without that first lap, it would have been difficult because there are so many fast cars that we would have had a tough time overtaking them.

The safety car came out at the worst possible time for Fernando, but whatever happens, he wouldn’t have been able to fend off Webber’s attacks at the end of the race. However, we are behind compared to the best, even though it wasn’t as much as yesterday. We need to work very hard, that’s for sure.

Next week, in Malaysia, we will have another challenging race: we must try to adapt as best as possible to the characteristics of the Sepang circuit.