Formula One news

Ferrari suffers championship blow at home

Ferrari suffered a blow to both championships as Felipe Massa retired from the Italian Grand Prix and Kimi Raikkonen finished third overall.

"We are very disappointed at having failed to secure a better result than just this third place for Kimi in our home Grand Prix," said team boss Jean Todt. "Felipe was forced to retire in the early stages because of a mechanical problem with the rear suspension, the cause of which has yet to be analysed. With Kimi, we ran a different strategy to our rivals but we did not have enough speed to get ahead of them. Clearly the situation in both championships is now more difficult. We will aim to do our best in the four remaining races, starting next weekend in Spa-Francorchamps."

Kimi Raikkonen commented, "This was definitely a tough race for me because of the pain I felt in my neck after yesterday's accident, which was bad enough to make it hard for me to hold my head steady under braking. Having said that, today we were not really quick enough. We knew it would not be an easy weekend, as we had already realized that in last week's test, with Friday and yesterday confirming it. The car was not bad in the first stint but then we were not strong enough. Hamilton's overtaking move? I tried to defend my position but he was definitely quicker than me. In the final stages I slowed to save the car for the next race. We were keen to win in front of our fans but we did not manage it. At least I got onto the podium. Now we tackle another fascinating circuit at Spa-Francorchamps where I think that we and our closest rivals will be more evenly matched."

Felipe Massa added,  "I am very disappointed. It's horrible to see your chances go in the early stages because of a reliability problem. There was something not working with the rear suspension: coming into Ascari I could feel a problem under braking and came into the pits, thinking it might be due to a puncture. However, once the tyres were changed that was still undriveable and I had to retire. We must tackle the coming races with the same spirit. Here we were competitive and I think that will be the same in the near future. This is very disappointing but these things happen in racing."

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