Saturday: The Ferrari performs well in the rain
Rather competitive on dry conditions since the beginning of the weekend in Sepang, the Ferrari also proved to be effective in the rain. Felipe Massa managed to place his F138 on the front row alongside Sebastian Vettel, while Fernando Alonso finished just behind his teammate in third position.
Felipe Massa – 8th and 2nd:
« It was a great qualifying session in which I managed to take advantage of the opportunities that came our way. In Q3, we decided to stop towards the end of the session to put on new intermediates, and that allowed me to do a good enough lap to take second place on the grid. I am very happy with this team result, which is due to the tremendous work done this winter. The car has proven competitive in all conditions, both on dry and wet tracks, but we need to keep improving. Today, we are fighting against strong rivals, and perhaps the rain helped us somewhat because in normal conditions, it would have been more difficult to achieve such a result. Now, we can expect a long and tough race where anything can happen, and strategy and tire management will be key while the uncertainty of the weather will help no one. »
Fernando Alonso – 10th and 3rd:
« I am very happy with this position because it has been a long time since I qualified in the top 3! It’s something I’ve managed to do consistently in races, but not in qualifying for a long time: perhaps the rain helped us because we were not the fastest on dry, but starting in the top 3 gives us a good opportunity to finish on the podium and even dream of victory. In Q3, when we saw that the track was drying quickly, we hesitated for a moment, because on dry, the intermediates would only last one or two laps before starting to degrade. But finally, it seemed to be the most logical choice and it worked. Of the last three years, this seems to be the weekend where everything has worked perfectly: the performance, the strategy, and the pit stops. Now, we have to see what will happen tomorrow because it’s always a gamble if it rains. Even if, in current Formula 1, the start is not the most important thing, we will still try to have a good one to maintain our position, or even try to pass Vettel in the first corner. Then, we’ll see: our race pace in Australia and on long runs here on Friday makes us quite optimistic. »
