Saturday: Ferrari or the story of a monumental blunder

It is already difficult at the moment to compete alongside teams such as Brawn GP or Williams, but Ferrari has today achieved the inconceivable…

Gone are the days when a good time in the first relay was enough to qualify for the next session. The Scuderia must now know this as they ultimately decided not to send the Brazilian back on track. The result is logical, a 16th place. However, the overall situation could have been worse since Kimi Räikkönen will start from the 7th position tomorrow. A nice performance.

Kimi Räikkönen – 7th and 7th (9th fastest):

« Honestly, the main issue is that, at the moment, we are not fast enough to fight for the top places. The car doesn’t have a flaw in a particular area, but we don’t have enough grip to be as fast as those who finished ahead of us today. The race will be very difficult. We will try to make the most out of the car. »

« As we saw yesterday, our pace is good. We need to improve our performance. Obviously, it is important to clarify the regulations as quickly as possible and understand which direction to go. Finally, both types of tires are working well. »

Felipe Massa – 3rd and 16th:

« I am very disappointed. If I had finished sixteenth due to a lack of performance, I would have accepted the result. But sixteenth in this way hurts even more. We didn’t react in time and lost the chance to have another flying lap. No one person is to blame, we are a team, we lose or win together. »

« We must change our qualifying approach. There is no room for mistakes and we have to give it our all right from the first session. Nevertheless, I am very motivated. It’s not the first time I’ve found myself this far back on the grid. I will rely on my good pace on track. We must try to capitalize on every opportunity to gain positions. »

Stefano Domenicali – Team Principal:

« This result is certainly not up to our expectations, even though we knew it would be difficult to qualify for the top spots. But the aspect that really leaves a bitter taste in the mouth is the way we behaved during the first part of the session. We made a wrong assumption that cost Felipe dearly. »

« Tomorrow, it will be a long and difficult race, with a question mark over the weather which can change very quickly. In Australia, we saw that anything can happen and we have to be ready to seize every opportunity. Obviously, we can no longer make mistakes. »