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Ferrari put the disappointment of Melbourne
behind them with a great qualifying
performance that sees an all-red front row
of the grid for tomorrow's second round of
the F1 World Championship, the Malaysian
Grand Prix. |
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Ferrari put
the disappointment of Melbourne behind them with a great
qualifying performance that sees an all-red front row of
the grid for tomorrow's second round of the F1 World
Championship, the Malaysian Grand Prix.
For the second consecutive year, the advantage of seeing
no cars ahead of him when the lights go out goes to
Felipe Massa, the Brazilian thus securing his tenth
pole. The Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro driver has been on
fine form all through free practice and he out-paced
team-mate Kimi Raikkonen by around half a second this
afternoon.
After
Melbourne, it was clear that, with new technical and
sporting regulations, starting from the front was a
major bonus in terms of doing well in the race and the
team evidently worked on this over the past week. With
cars having to start the race with the fuel they have in
the fuel cell at the end of qualifying, the unknown
factor is what fuel loads our competitors have on board.
Those competitors start on Row 2 of the grid, in the
shape of the expected challenge from McLaren-Mercedes.
However, third place belongs to the team's new recruit,
Heikki Kovalainen who out-qualified Melbourne winner
Lewis Hamilton. The third row sees the Toyota of Jarno
Trulli just ahead of sixth placed Robert Kubica in the
BMW-Sauber. There was some controversy this morning
surrounding Red Bull Renault, as following an accident
in Melbourne and another here on Friday for David
Coulthard, the Stewards asked the team to validate the
safety of his car. In the end, the team was allowed to
take part in the rest of the event.
In the winter testing, the drivers had, as a
generalisation, claimed they were not so concerned about
running without electronic driver aids, but in Melbourne
it was clear that maybe the task of actually racing
without traction control and engine braking was tougher
than expected. So with the chance of a tropical rain
storm in tomorrow's race which starts at 15h00 local
time, we could witness the first wet race of this new
era in which drivers will really have to use all their
skill to stay on track.
Both Ferraris will start the Malaysian Grand Prix from
the front row: Felipe Massa set the best time in Q3 and
alongside him on the grid will be Kimi Raikkonen. This
is the seventh pole from ten starts at this circuit for
Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro and it brings the Scuderia's
overall total to 196. Felipe took the tenth pole of his
career, the second one in a row at this circuit.
Stefano Domenicali. "Today we worked well and up to
our usual standards and the results prove it. We have
now made just a small step in terms of the Grand Prix
with the longer one still needing to be accomplished in
tomorrow's race. If all elements - team, drivers, cars -
work at their best, then we can aspire to a good result.
Congratulations to Felipe, who really produced an
exceptional qualifying lap."
Felipe Massa: "I am very happy! In the final part
of qualifying, I managed to put together two really good
laps after struggling a bit in Q2. Right at the end
there were a few drops of rain, but it had no effect
whatsoever on the performance. It is very important to
start from the front and I hope I can have a good race.
We know our car is very competitive over a long run, but
it is also clear we face a long tough race. All the
same, we can only be confident about tomorrow."
Kimi Raikkonen: "Of course, I would prefer to
have taken pole, but second place is definitely not bad
and I am happy that the team got the best result
possible. In Q3, I was not able to get the tyres to work
as well as possible, especially on my second run, after
having had a good lap in Q2. The track seemed to be a
bit more slippery and I was not able to get everything
out of the car. Tomorrow's race will be very tough: I
made a good start in Melbourne and I hope I can do the
same tomorrow."
Luca Baldisserri: "Finally, a trouble-free day.
Car performance was good and it worked well as can be
seen from the result. There are a few unknowns regarding
the various sets of tyres, which seem to be a bit up and
down and we will have to study that carefully. The
threat of rain meant we operated differently to usual,
going out on track at the start of all the sessions. We
expect a very difficult race tomorrow because of the
weather which will be tough on cars and drivers. Clearly
our aim is to do the maximum, which is to say to repeat
this afternoon's result."
Qualifying session
F. Massa: 1st 1.35.748 6 laps chassis 267
K. Raikkonen: 2nd 1.36.230 6 laps chassis 268
Weather: air temperature 30/29 °C, track temperature 34
°C, cloudy with a threat of rain.
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