Formula One news

Mixed feelings at Ferrari

Qualifying for the German Grand Prix brought mixed fortunes for Ferrari: Felipe Massa set the second quickest time in the third and decisive session, while Kimi Raikkonen, took sixth place. 

"On the one hand, we are satisfied with Felipe's position as he produced a good qualifying performance, while we cannot feel the same about Kimi, who never managed to find the right balance on his car," commented Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali. "It's true that to analyse this afternoon's result objectively one would need to know how much fuel the others have on board, but clearly, starting from the third row won't make life easy for Kimi. We can count on having a good race pace with both types of tyre and will have to work with scrupulous attention over the next few hours to prepare for a race that looks like being a very tough one. I am sure both our drivers will give it their best shot and have a great race"

Felipe Massa commented, "I am pleased with this result. Of course you'd always prefer to be on pole position, but all weekend long we have been trading fastest times during the sessions and, in the end, our main rivals managed to find a little extra, even if the fuel load is an unknown quantity. It will be a very difficult race: our aim is still to win, but it will be important anyway to pick up many points. We must try to get a good start and make the most of what we have."

Kimi Raikkonen added, "All weekend long, we have been struggling a bit to find a good set-up for the car. At the end of yesterday, it seemed we were on the right road and this morning we tried to improve still further down this path, but it was not the right one. Then, in qualifying, we went reasonably well with low fuel, but in the final session, the car was not as good. Clearly sixth place is not satisfying and tomorrow we won't be in for an easy time, but it's definitely not the end of the world. It will be a long race tomorrow and that's when the points are allocated. For our part, we will do all we can to get a good finish position."

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