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Felipe Massa
took his second pole position of the season, after the
one he netted in Malaysia, to give himself the best
possible chance of securing a hat-trick of Turkish wins
tomorrow. His Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro team-mate, Kimi
Raikkonen will have a tougher afternoon, starting
nevertheless from a strong fourth place on the outside
of Row 2.
The main threat in tomorrow's Turkish Grand Prix looks
likely to come from old rivals McLaren-Mercedes as Massa
has Heikki Kovalainen alongside him and the Finn shares
his row of the grid with Lewis Hamilton. Row three sees
Robert Kubica line up his BMW-Sauber in fifth spot with
Mark Webber sixth in the Red Bull-Renault. With the
departure of the Super Aguri team, this will be the
first time that just twenty cars line up on the grid
since the end of the 2005 season.
Away from the race track, last night, Kimi and Felipe
attended an evening hosted by Ferrari's Turkish
importer. The focal point of the evening was the launch
of a new website, www.ferrarigtcountdown.com which is
being used as a unique way of presenting a new Ferrari
Grand Tourer which will be unveiled at the Paris Motor
Show in October. The innovative idea consists of guiding
visitors to the site through a sensory voyage of
discovery which, over the coming weeks will gradually
reveal the new car in its entirety, leading up to the
actual presentation.
After a speech
from Ferrari's Commercial and Brand Director, Dany Bahar,
the two Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro drivers officially opened
the site by clicking onto it in a modern version of the
tradition of cutting a ribbon at a premiere. The first
element of the secret new car to be revealed was in the form
of a sound clip of the noise of the engine.
As for tomorrow's Grand Prix, which will probably be a
"conventional" two stop race for most competitors, all one
can say with any certainty is that it will be a tough one.
Istanbul Park is a long and technical complex track and one
key area, which will be even more critical than usual here
will be the tyres. Effectively, Bridgestone has brought the
tyres that were the best at this track last year, but the
track temperatures have been on average twenty degrees
cooler this weekend, which has made bringing them up to
temperature more of a struggle than usual. The cold weather
and the rain this morning has not helped that situation.
This was the third pole position of the season for Ferrari,
and the second for Felipe Massa. The Istanbul circuit
continues to be propitious for the Brazilian driver, as this
is the third consecutive time that he has been quickest in
qualifying for this race. It was Felipe's eleventh career
pole, bringing to 198 the number of times that the Scuderia
has started from the top position on the grid.
Stefano Domenicali: "A very nice pole from Felipe and
a shame for Kimi who could have been a bit further up the
grid tomorrow. In general terms we can be happy with the
overall result, even if this is only the smallest step on
the road to the targets we set ourselves for this weekend.
Of course the biggest one is the race which we can tackle
fully confident of our potential, while being aware of the
great strengths of our rivals, who will make our life
difficult."
Kimi Raikkonen: "Obviously, I would have preferred to
have been further up the grid, but this position is
definitely not the end of the world. What matters is the
race when the points are given out. We are up against very
strong opposition, which is no surprise to us. Of course,
there's a question mark over fuel loads and we won't get an
answer to that until the first pit stops tomorrow afternoon.
I am a bit disappointed but I made mistakes on my second lap
in Q3 and I have to accept that: I didn't go into the final
corner before the pit straight quite right and lost a lot of
speed. We can count on a car that is good over a distance
and we will try and make the most of it, trying to get as
many points as possible. Winning is never easy, but I'll
give it a go!"
Felipe Massa: "I am very happy to have taken a third
consecutive pole at this circuit: it is really motivating
and it would be fantastic to do the same again tomorrow in
the race. Driving this track is nice and fun, with Turn 8
being exceptional, although there are others that are also
very tough. Today, the car was great and I got the most out
of it. Tomorrow I will have to watch out for all those who
are around me on the grid. It will be important to work out
the best way to manage the tyres in the light of how the
track will evolve and how the temperature changes. In Q2, I
had a bit of traffic, but in Q3 I was able to do two
completely trouble free laps."
Luca Baldisserri: "As expected, this was a very close
qualifying. Felipe did a nice lap to take pole, while it was
a shame that Kimi missed out on a better position by a
whisker. We have a car that works well over a long run,
especially on the softer Bridgestone tyres and we will do
our utmost to bring home as many points as possible. The
start will be important, as will strategy, while as ever the
crucial element is reliability."
Qualifying
session
F. Massa: 1st 1.27.617 6 Laps Chassis 267
K. Raikkonen: 4th 1.27.936 6 Laps Chassis 270
Weather: air temperature 19/21 °C, track temperature 27/32
°C, partially cloudy.
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