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For once,
the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro duo of Kimi Raikkonen and
Felipe Massa had a slightly different Friday programme
to usual, although unfortunately, it was not done simply
for the sake of giving them some variety, but because
the Brazilian driver had a slightly stiff neck which
developed in the morning. This part of the driver's body
always comes under a lot of strain because of the
G-forces they experience going through corners and
through braking and accelerating. Therefore Felipe's day
was divided into short bursts of track activity, thus
leaving the long runs, necessary to analyse tyre
behaviour, cooling and other factors, to his team-mate.
Massa will now receive treatment from the team physio.
There was stiff competition on the track, with Fernando
Alonso posting the fastest time at the end of the day,
at his team Renault's home race. Felipe and Kimi took
their F2008s to second and third places respectively in
the afternoon, after the former had been fastest in the
morning and the latter fourth. The Spaniard and the two
Scuderia men were the only drivers to break the 1m 16"
barrier and the top thirteen all ended up within the
same second. Fourth fastest was Lewis Hamilton in the
McLaren-Mercedes, ahead of the Ferrari powered Toro
Rosso of Sebastian Vettel, while Canada winner Robert
Kubica was sixth for BMW-Sauber. Apart from a few drops
of rain several hours before the start of the first
session, the day has been dry, hot and sunny and this is
forecast to continue for Saturday's grid-deciding
qualifying session.
At the end of the afternoon session, the FIA had
organised for all drivers to try a new running regime
for when the Safety Car has to be deployed during races.
The plan is to avoid the situation where, through no
fault of his own, a driver has to come into pit lane to
refuel in order not to run out of fuel on the circuit,
which so far this year could lead to a penalty if the
pit lane was officially deemed to be "closed."
A lot of work completed by Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro in
these three hours of free practice on the first day of
the French Grand Prix. Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa
covered around 500 kilometres (64 laps for the Finn and
45 for the Brazilian.) It means the team now has plenty
of data to work on with a view to qualifying and
especially the race. "Overall, it was a good start to
this race weekend," commented the Team Principal of the
Gestione Sportiva, Stefano Domenicali. "Both drivers
declared themselves pleased with the handling of the
F2008 on this track. In evaluating the results, the
usual unknowns come into consideration, these being the
fuel taken on by the other teams and their work
schedule, but we can say we are confident for the rest
of the weekend. Coming off the back of two negative
results, having not fulfilled our potential, it's time
to get back to our usual standards."
Felipe Massa: "It was a good day, apart from a
slightly tight neck which I began to feel this morning:
so as not to take any risks, I chose to avoid doing too
many runs of several laps. I therefore concentrated on
the car's set-up, working with both types of tyre. On
the softer ones, it seems to be a little bit harder to
find the right balance, but we must take into account
that today, as usual on a Friday, the track is still
dirty. Everyone suffered a bit with graining on the
front tyres, but tomorrow the situation should improve.
We must study all the data we have gathered to prepare
as well as possible for qualifying and the race."
Kimi Raikkonen: "I am happy with the way things
went during these two free practice sessions. We got
through all our usual Friday job list, working mainly
towards the race. Of course we don't know how much fuel
our main rivals were running, but I get the impression
we are very competitive. Maybe I did not get the most
out of the first lap, but I am happy with the balance of
the car. We tried out this new system for a Safety Car
period and I think it could be a good solution because
it puts everyone in the same situation and that way,you
can't be penalized just by unfortunate circumstances."
Luca Baldisserri: "Because Felipe was suffering
with a stiff neck this morning, we slightly modified the
two drivers' programmes from the usual ones. The
Brazilian concentrated on defining the best set-up on
the car, while Kimi also had to tackle the task of
evaluating the behaviour of both types of Bridgestone
tyre available to us. We are happy with the work we did
today: the F2008 seemed to be going well on this track
and that means we can be cautiously confident for the
rest of the weekend."
Free practice
- First session
F. Massa: 1st 1.15.306 22 laps chassis 267
K. Raikkonen: 4th 1.16.073 21 laps chassis 270
Weather: air 22/21 °C, track 23/27 °C, cloudy.
Free Practice - Second session
F. Massa: 2nd 1.15.854 24 laps chassis 267
K. Raikkonen: 3rd 1.15.999 42 laps chassis 270
Weather: air temperature 24 °C, track temperature 36/37 °C,
partially cloudy.
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