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Felipe Massa
summed up his qualifying session perfectly, saying he
was the quickest man on track, but at the wrong time.
Indeed, the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro driver set the
best time of the day in Q2, when cars run minimum fuel
loads, but then lacked grip in the grid deciding Top Ten
shoot-out to take fifth spot, which is not ideal in
terms of the championship, as current leader Lewis
Hamilton took pole for McLaren-Mercedes. However,
reigning world champion Kimi Raikkonen preferred the
handling of his F2008 when running with his race fuel
load and made a timely return to the front row in second
spot. The second row is made up of Heikki Kovalainen in
the second McLaren, with Singapore winner, Fernando
Alonso putting his Renault on the outside in fourth
place. Felipe shares the third row with the man who is
behind him in the Drivers' championship, Robert Kubica
in the BMW-Sauber. With the various fuel loads of all
the front runners yet to be revealed, strategy will be a
key factor in tomorrow's race, which like today's
qualifying is expected to take place on a dry track.
Like all the teams, the Scuderia has been practicing its
pit stops during the weekend and for the Prancing Horse
team, this has meant a return to the "lollipop" being
used to stop and release drivers into pit lane. The
"traffic light" system has not been axed, but just put
on ice for the final races, to take any pressure off the
mechanics after a couple of problems with it. Indeed,
news that other teams are now investigating similar
systems, proves that it is the way to go, as it offers a
performance advantage during pits stops where fractions
of a second can make a difference to final positions in
a race.
After the novelty and excitement of Singapore two weeks
ago, the Fuji circuit offers everyone a quieter and more
rural backdrop, but Kimi and Felipe were involved in a
more glamorous event back on Wednesday when they stopped
off in Tokyo. The two F1 drivers were present at the
Italian Embassy in the Japanese capital city for this
country's launch of the new California road car
"Obviously, we were hoping for a different result,
especially given our potential," commented Team
Principal of the Gestione Sportiva Stefano Domenicali.
"It's a shame for Felipe who had been quickest in Q2
before suffering with a lack of grip from the tyres in
Q3. Kimi did a good job and managed to get back onto the
front row. Tomorrow, we can expect to have to fight our
way up to the front, especially given the positions of
our closest rivals. It will be a long race in which tyre
performance, strategy and the overall team work will, as
usual play a decisive role in terms of the final outcome
as of course will the need for absolute reliability."
Kimi Raikkonen: "I'm pleased to be back on the
front row, even if I'm not totally happy as I always
want to be the fastest. On top of that, I'm not
completely satisfied with the handling of my car: all
weekend we have worked very hard to find the best set-up
but we did not get it a hundred percent right. All the
same, we have improved our performance, especially with
a heavy fuel load. This result means I'm in good shape
for the race. Tomorrow, I will try to make the best of
the situation. My aim is to finish this season in the
best way possible and help the team to win both
championships."
Felipe Massa: "A shame. Today I was the quickest
man on track but at the wrong moment. In Q3, I never had
the right amount of grip from both sets of tyres that I
used. On my first run I was a bit cautious on my "out"
lap and so suffered in the first sector, making a
mistake at Turn 3. On the second run, I did the opposite
and found myself without grip at the end of the lap. So,
I've ended up fifth on the grid, which is definitely not
an easy place to be. I will try and work my way up in
the race to score big points for the championship. All
the same, the set-up on the car is good and we should be
competitive. The first corner? It's similar to the one
at the Hungaroring, so I hope I can manage to repeat the
good start I got there."
Luca Baldisserri: "It was a somewhat
contradictory session, both in terms of the final result
and of the various performance levels through the field.
In the first two sessions, Felipe had shown himself to
be very quick and to have found the right balance on the
car, while Kimi was struggling a bit. In Q3 the
situation was pretty much reversed and specifically,
Felipe found his sets of tyres producing inconsistent
performance, offering less grip than previously. Hence
his fifth place on a grid where the time differences are
minimal. For his part, Kimi was more comfortable on the
heavy fuel load and managed to do a great lap to get
onto the front row. Tomorrow we will be up against very
strong opposition and we will do our utmost to get both
our cars ahead of them."
Qualifying session
K. Raikkonen: 2nd 1.18.644 6 laps chassis 270
F. Massa: 5th 1.18.874 6 laps chassis 269
Weather: air temperature 20/21 °C, track temperature
21/22 °C, cloudy.
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