Saturday: Ferrari and Alonso close the gap with Red Bull

Fernando Alonso – 6th and 4th:

« I must say that we have made a step forward compared to Japan, just a week ago, in terms of grid position and also the gap to the front. You can see that our car is better suited to this track, knowing that it is fundamentally the same as in Japan. We need to improve on that, and I expect to see some improvements come in by the next race in India. It’s no surprise to see both Red Bulls on the front row; indeed, it’s not by chance that they were also the fastest in Q1 and Q2. My second lap in Q1? I was very careful not to wear out the tires too much because I knew I would have to use them later in Q2. I think tomorrow we can have a good race: maybe I will lose a few places immediately after the start because I’m on the dirty side of the track, but we have shown that we have a good race pace on long stints and so we should be able to stay with the leading group. Our objective tomorrow? It’s very simple: finish ahead of Vettel. From now on, the number of points one has will not matter, what will matter is to score one more than my closest rival. It may happen that I lose the championship lead, and maybe I will arrive at the last race with 24 points behind, but what counts will be to be at the top of the standings at the end of the Brazilian Grand Prix. What advantage does Red Bull have? A faster car, but we have the best team. »

Felipe Massa – 8th and 6th:

« It was a reasonably good qualifying session, even if it wasn’t perfect. I made a few small mistakes that might have cost me one or two places, but after all, sixth place is not a disaster. The most important thing today is that we passed Q2: this means that, from this perspective, we have made a significant step forward. On a long stint, we have seen in the past that we are more competitive than on a flying lap and we hope that this story repeats itself tomorrow, as we will be able to fight with those starting ahead of us. In qualifying, there are ultimately two cars faster than us, but once in the race, the situation is different. We need to come up with a good strategy, try to get the best out of the tires that don’t seem to wear out too much here. The first corner is very tight and I hope we have a normal start. Grosjean is starting next to me? I think he understands how he needs to behave so I’m not particularly worried. »