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FERRARI F60 - QUALIFYING, 2009 SPANISH GRAND PRIX, BARCELONA

FELIPE MASSA - QUALIFYING, 2009 SPANISH GRAND PRIX, BARCELONA

Ferrari, benefitting from a new aero package, showed a dramatic return to form today in Barcelona with Felipe Massa setting the fourth fastest qualifying time although Kimi Raikkonen failed to benefit as a strategic error sunk his chances in Q1.

There is a saying in the paddock that, if Formula 1 was easy, everyone would do it and today’s qualifying performance from Scuderia Ferrari was a perfect illustration of that cliché. This is a sport where the difference between success and failure is always poised on a knife edge. Felipe Massa had a great session to make it through to the final part of qualifying, before taking fourth place in the top ten shoot out. From where he starts, with the F60 much improved with the new package brought to this race, the Brazilian has a real chance of making it to the podium tomorrow. However, bitter is the only way to describe the Scuderia’s feelings after a bad error of judgement saw Kimi Raikkonen’s qualifying end in Q1, with a start position of sixteenth. Prior to the session, the strategists calculate what lap time should be sufficient to make it through to Q2 and after Kimi’s run, it was felt he had done enough and that it was better to save a new set of the faster softer tyres for the next part of the session. It proved to be a bad choice, as the Finn dropped out of the top 15 and into the relegation zone. His afternoon was over.

Once again, championship leader and winner of three races this year, Jenson Button, steered his Brawn to another pole position, just beating Sebastian Vettel, the only other man to win so far this season, in the Red Bull Renault, in the dying moments of Q3. It was a thrilling few minutes that had the crowd on their feet. Inside Felipe on row 2 is his fellow countryman, Rubens Barrichello in the second Brawn. While behind them, Mark Webber (Red Bull Renault) and Timo Glock (Toyota) occupy row 3. There are two Ferrari engines on row 8, as Kimi finds himself alongside the Toro Rosso car of Sebastien Buemi.

It seems it would not be a Grand Prix weekend if the weather experts did not predict rain for race day and indeed, that is the case for tomorrow. Usually, drivers at the front end of the grid favour a straightforward dry race, while those at the back pray for rain to capitalise on unforeseen circumstances, therefore the two Prancing Horse drivers could line up with different aspirations on this front.

One car on the second row, the other on the eighth: that was the outcome of qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix. Felipe Massa qualified fourth in the final part of the session, having been fastest in Q1 and fourth in Q2. Kimi Raikkonen failed to make it through to the second session and is thus left to start from sixteenth place. “A day of varying fortunes,” commented Stefano Domenicali. “On the one hand there’s the satisfaction of Felipe’s result and on the other, disappointment for Kimi’s. Felipe’s showing in qualifying confirms that all the work of the past few weeks aimed at improving the car’s performance is going in the right direction. However, that can only add to the disappointment of how things went in terms of managing his team-mate’s session. We had the potential to get both cars into the top three rows and we only got it half right. Tomorrow, we can expect a long and difficult race, as usual in fact. Felipe has a chance to do well, while Kimi will have to try and climb up the order in the hope of making it into the points.”

Felipe Massa: “We demonstrated that the car has improved and is much more competitive than at the other races. I am happy to be back at the front end in qualifying and the credit for that goes to everyone at the Scuderia, who have worked day and night these past weeks to get so many new elements on track so quickly. There is still a long way to go, but we are working in the right direction which is a good sign for the future. From fourth on the grid, my aim is to fight for a podium finish. At the start, the KERS could be very handy in helping me make up some places and then we know we can count on running a good race pace. I feel more comfortable at the wheel: the car is more stable and doesn’t slide so much everywhere as it did in the past.”

Kimi Raikkonen: “We made a stupid mistake. It’s a real shame because the car was much better than the one we had in the previous races and we had every chance of getting a good result. I didn’t get any particularly good laps on my only run in Q1, but we thought my best time would be enough to make it to Q2 and so I stayed in the garage. There’s no point in saying whose fault it was, because we can’t do anything about it now. I certainly wasn’t keen on doing another run as I was thinking of saving a set of new soft tyres for Q3 and the team reckoned we could make it. Tomorrow’s race will be tough and we will try and make the best of the situation. The F60 has improved, maybe not yet to the level of the best, but we’re definitely getting closer.”

Chris Dyer: “We have worked so hard to bring new components here for the F60 and the result of those efforts was confirmed today by Felipe’s performance. Unfortunately, we were unable to fully exploit this improvement, because we made a serious mistake in our evaluation of Q1, believing that Kimi’s time would have been good enough to get him through to the next stage. It was a serious error which is really regrettable. We will try to make up for it tomorrow in a race which he will start from way down the order. Felipe is on a good strategy and although we wait to see the fuel levels of the other drivers, we can aspire to a podium finish. As usual, reliability will be the number one priority.”

Qualifying session

K. Raikkonen: 16th 1.21.291 5 laps
F. Massa: 4th 1.20.934 6 laps
Chassis: F. Massa 275, K. Raikkonen 279
Weather: air temperature 26/25 °C, track temperature 39/37 °C, hazy sky.