Sunday: Podium for Alonso and team race for Ferrari

Fernando Alonso – 3rd:

« This Sunday was perfect for the championship, like in a movie with a happy ending: a new podium, three of my closest rivals not scoring points, and a lead that widens compared to my closest pursuer.

I remain convinced that without the problem we encountered in qualifying yesterday, we would definitely have had every chance to start from pole position, and if we can remain just as competitive on Saturdays during the upcoming races, it will be very important for the end of the season. We need to try to win more races and manage the lead we have in the standings. Here, we had to keep close tabs on Vettel, but in Singapore it will be important to keep an eye on Hamilton, who is now second.

When I found myself battling with Vettel, I went off track and from there, the car wasn’t very good. It wasn’t pleasant bouncing in the gravel, but later on, I managed to overtake him nonetheless, a few laps later. I don’t want to comment on the penalty Vettel received, but what he did was undoubtedly on the limit.

The first laps were the key to my race. I passed a few cars – Kimi [Räikkönen], [Paul] di Resta and Michael [Schumacher] – and finding myself in sixth place almost immediately gave a new direction to my race.

Driving for Ferrari at Monza and standing on the podium is something special: driving a red car is different because the fans are exceptional. If they were told not to eat for days just to be able to drive a car coming out of Maranello, they would do it, and that’s what makes the passion for Ferrari unique in the world.

Felipe Massa – 4th:

I’m satisfied with this result, even though I hoped to make the podium. We faced greater tire degradation than expected, very different from what we observed on Friday in free practice. It’s a shame because when the tires were still good, I was keeping up with the McLarens, but then I started to lose the rear, earlier than they did.

It wasn’t an easy race: towards the end, Pérez came back very strong on me and there was nothing I could do to stop him from overtaking me.

I worked for the team, trying to help Fernando, as it should be. I’ve always done it and will do it as long as it’s necessary.

I don’t think a two-stop strategy would have worked: looking at the data, for us, it was slower than a one-stop strategy.

When the team lost telemetry, we had a long discussion over the radio and, all in all, we managed to handle the situation as best as we could.

I don’t know if this race changes anything regarding my future but, the most important thing for now, is undoubtedly to keep going like this, to work with a lot of attention and to try to do my best for the team.