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Felipe Massa finally scored
points for the first time
this season, picking up the
three that go with sixth
place in the Spanish Grand
Prix. The Brazilian appeared
to be heading for a fourth
place finish, maybe even a
podium, but he slithered
down to sixth in the closing
stages due to a fuelling
problem, which meant he had
to slow to save fuel. His
team-mate Kimi Raikkonen had
climbed up the order until
he looked set for a points
finish, but an accelerator
problem forced him to retire
on lap 17.
The race was dominated by
the Brawn team with Jenson
Button winning from team
mate Rubens Barrichello, with Red Bull’s
Mark Webber joining them on
the podium.
In warm conditions with
temperatures of around 25
degrees, Felipe Massa and
Kimi Raikkonen lined up on
the grid for the 66 lap
Spanish Grand Prix in 4th
and 16th places
respectively.
As the lights went out,
Felipe got a very good
start, thanks partly to the
KERS on his F60, getting
ahead of Vettel in the Red
Bull, to go third behind
Barrichello, who got ahead
of his team-mate and pole
man Jenson Button in the
Brawn.
On the very first lap the
Safety Car had to come out,
after the two Toro Rosso
cars crashed into one
another, avoiding Trulli who
had been off the track and
back on again in the Toyota.
Sutil’s Force India was also
involved in the incident.
The Safety Car was out for 6
laps before the race was on
again.
On lap 10, the field had
been reduced to just 15 cars
and the order was,
Barrichello, Button, Massa,
Vettel, Webber, Alonso,
Rosberg, Glock, Heidfeld,
Kimi who had made up 6
places already to be tenth.
Then came Kubica, Hamilton,
Piquet, Fisichella and
Nakajima, 15th and last.
Button and Alonso pitted on
lap 17 and on the following
lap, Kimi’s race ended with
a hydraulics problem that
brought his car and his race
to a stop. Barrichello and
Webber came in together one
lap later, and Barrichello
and Massa did the same on
lap 20. Rosberg, yet to stop
in the Williams was now
second between the two
Brawns, with Felipe fourth
ahead of Vettel. Rosberg
came in on 25, so that the
order was now Barrichello,
Button, Massa, Vettel,
Heidfeld and Hamilton, these
two not having refuelled
yet, ahead of Webber with
Alonso eighth.
Barrichello was on a three
stop strategy, therefore
coming in again early on lap
30 for his second stop,
leaving his team-mate as the
new leader, with Felipe now
second. Heidfeld and
Hamilton also came in on
this lap for their first
stop.
On lap 36, as indeed had
been the case for much of
the race, Felipe was under
pressure from Vettel, just
one second behind, with the
Ferrari man trailing leader
Button by 5 seconds.
Lap 43 and it was a repeat
of their earlier stop, as
Felipe and Vettel came down
pit lane nose to tail,
rejoining in the same
relative positions. At this
stage, the best battle was
between Alonso in the
Renault and Hamilton in the
McLaren. Race leader Button
made his second stop on lap
47, rejoining third.
Barrichello and Webber
pitted from the top two
places on lap 50 and this
was a key moment for
Felipe’s chances of a
podium, as the Brawn and the
Red Bull duo managed to get
in and out of the pits
before Felipe and Vettel
both
came by the end of pit lane.
At this point the German
lapped four tenths faster
than the Brazilian to close
right up behind the Ferrari.
Unknown to the fans in the
stands, Felipe had been told
to slow down as not all the
fuel that should have gone
in did go in.
Then along the main straight
on lap 63, Felipe appeared
to slow dramatically with
this fuel problem and Vettel
flew by him, relegating the
Ferrari to fifth place.
Obviously in trouble, Felipe
was next caught by Alonso,
dropping down to sixth, but
that was still the better
solution than coming in for
a third unscheduled stop
which would have seen him
fall right out of the points
zone.
The order then remained
unchanged to the flag, with
Button taking his fourth win
of the season to consolidate
his and his team’s
championship lead, with
Barrichello making it a
Brawn one-two, with the two
Red Bulls of Webber and
Vettel, third and fourth
ahead of Fernando and
Felipe. A Ferrari on the
podium had been the pre-race
target, but at least Felipe
Massa has finally got some
points – 3 – on the
scoreboard and on the
performance side at least,
the F60 seems to be
competitive again.
Stefano Domenicali:
“We can take some satisfaction from this
weekend, but at the same time, it has
thrown up further concerns. On the one
hand we saw that the effort expended in
recent weeks has born fruit in terms of
improving the performance level of the
car. Both in yesterday’s qualifying and
today, Felipe was competitive at the
highest level, as was confirmed on the
clock: it’s not by luck that we got the
third fastest time in the race, which
would have been far out of our reach in
previous races this year. Once again,
the downside comes from the reliability
side. Again today, we had problems which
forced Kimi to retire and cost Felipe
two places in the final stages, having
also robbed him of the chance of getting
to the podium, which would have been
well deserved. This is unacceptable for
a team like Ferrari: we must all react
to get back to our usual standard, as
indeed we have partially managed on the
performance side. There is much to do on
all fronts and we will tackle it with
our usual absolute determination.”
Felipe Massa:
“It’s a real shame to have lost two
places in the final stages, even if
we’ve finally made it to the scoreboard.
We knew we couldn’t match the pace of
the Brawns but we had managed to get
ahead of the Red Bulls and, but for the
fuel problem, I could have certainly
stayed ahead of Vettel and Alonso. The
final part of the race was a pain. I was
already struggling on the harder tyres
and then I had to try and save fuel as
much as possible, while at the same time
staying ahead of Vettel. Then the team
told that if I wanted to make it to the
finish, I would have to let Vettel by
and slow down a lot: if I had made
another pit stop I would have finished
out of the points. Today, the car’s pace
on the softer tyre was reasonably good,
even if we’re still lacking a few
tenths, but at least we are back to
fighting for the top places.”
Kimi Raikkonen:
“I am very unhappy because I could have
finished in the points. Unfortunately, I
had a hydraulic problem linked to the
control of the accelerator which meant I
had to retire. At the start I managed to
make up a few places but then, I found
myself behind Heidfeld’s BMW. The car is
better, but we must fix these
reliability problems. Obviously, when
you have to make up ground you can end
up making avoidable errors, as has
happened to us in this first part of the
season, but that doesn’t mean to say the
team has lost its way. We are the same
people who over the past two years have
won three world titles out of the four
available."
Chris Dyer:
“The most important thing this weekend
is that the car performance is much
improved compared to the previous races.
Today we were capable of fighting with
the best and we had a great chance of
finishing on the podium. On the
downside, we can only be disappointed
about our reliability and the running of
our on-track operation. After what
happened in qualifying yesterday, Kimi
had to retire because of a problem with
the hydraulics used to control the
accelerator. On Felipe’s car, the front
left wheel fairing broke and at both pit
stops we had a refueling problem, the
cause of which we have yet to find out.
Obviously, we have a lot of work to do.
We are all very unhappy for what
happened and lament the fact that so
much work from the team to improve car
performance was not adequately rewarded
in the final result.”
Race Details:
F. Massa: 6th 1:38.10.029 + 50.827 66
laps 275 chassis
K. Raikkonen: R 28.17.924 Lap 18 17 laps
279 chassis
Weather:
air temperature 38/36 °C, track
temperature 51/49 °C, sunny, then
slightly cloudy.
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