Saturday: Massa beats Alonso at Ferrari
Placed as usual on the starting grid, but not in the same order, the Ferraris expected to struggle on a track that doesn't suit them. However, both Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso are hoping that tomorrow's race will work in their favor, perhaps with the help of the safety car.
Felipe Massa – 10th and 6th:
Having struggled yesterday and during the third free practice session, today in qualifying, we finally managed to put together a good lap by completely changing the car’s setup. Obviously, the gap with the fastest cars is still large, but today, achieving a time as close to that of the Red Bull or Mercedes was really difficult, partly because they have not suffered as much as we have from a lack of grip and because we are on a circuit with a high aerodynamic downforce level. I expect a difficult race because anything can happen, and tire degradation is particularly significant, although I hope we will have a good race pace and be competitive. It’s tomorrow’s race that counts, and we will do our best to improve our position in the championship. My efforts over the next seven races will be maximal because I would like to end my chapter with Ferrari in the best possible way.
Fernando Alonso – 6th and 7th:
The result today is not surprising because since the beginning of the season, on average, we have always started between sixth and eighth place, and from there, we have moved up to the front in the race, which we will try to do again tomorrow. The improvements brought for this race have gained us a tenth of a second, which meets our expectations. Even if the gap with the leader is still significant and the progression does not seem so obvious, we cannot say that our engineers have not made a great effort, because everyone has done excellent work.
Expectations for tomorrow are still high, even though, at the same time, our rivals haven’t wasted their time and other teams like Mercedes and Lotus have made a step forward. We must be realistic and try to capitalize on any mistakes they might make. I think the podium could be within our reach tomorrow if we have a perfect race and make the best choices in terms of strategy, tires, and the right number of pit stops. Here in Singapore, in five years, there has always been at least one safety car and, for that reason, luck can make more of a difference than elsewhere.
