Fernando
Alonso took the chequered flag at the end of the 57 laps
of the European Grand Prix on Sunday afternoon in ninth
place and Felipe Massa in fourteenth. The race was
ruined for the Scuderia Ferrari duo because of a
controversial Safety Car period and there was more
action after the race, with nine drivers brought before
the Stewards for driving too fast to the pits under the
Safety Car. The 5 second penalties handed down however
were meagre compensation, and as a result only moved
Fernando and Felipe up to eighth and eleventh
respectively: meagre indeed, when a possible podium
finish had beckoned from the start. On the podium,
Sebastian Vettel was the winner for Red Bull, with the
McLaren duo of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button
finishing in second and third places respectively.
As the red lights went out yesterday afternoon, Webber
got away poorly so that while Vettel led from pole,
Hamilton, Fernando and Felipe all got past the
Australian, who then dropped down as far as ninth.
Behind Felipe came Kubica, Button, Barrichello and
Hulkenberg. Webber made an early pit stop on lap 7,
coming out behind Kovalainen and on lap 10, trying to
pass the Lotus, Webber’s Red Bull clipped its rear end
which launched him into the air, the car completing a
somersault, before sliding across a run-off area to end
up in the tyre wall. It was a massive accident, but
fortunately Webber was unhurt. However, it meant the
Safety Car came out and almost everyone from Button in
fifth, going down the order were able to pit immediately
to change onto the harder tyres which would last to the
chequered flag. The top four all had to complete one
more lap as they had already gone past the pits. From
this point onward, the Scuderia’s race was completely
ruined. While the leader Vettel was already past the pit
exit when the Safety Car came out, Hamilton ran parallel
to it, eventually passing it, for which he was later
given a drive-through penalty. By the time the McLaren
man came in to take the penalty, his race was saved by
Kobayashi: the Sauber driver was the only one to start
on the hard tyre and was running in third place and
eventually would not change to the softs until a handful
of laps before the flag. But his lack of pace, meant he
was holding up the field, so that Hamilton was able to
carry out his penalty and still rejoin the track in
second place.
So, while the two leaders, Vettel and Hamilton
maintained their positions, Fernando and Felipe having
completed pretty much a whole lap at slow speed behind
the Safety Car, then carried out a double pit stop and
found themselves relegated to tenth and fifteenth places
respectively. The rest of the grand prix was more
consistent with past races at this track, with very
little overtaking, which meant that Fernando and Felipe
never really had any chance of turning the situation
around. In fact towards the end, Fernando even had to
give best to Kobayashi, who running on brand new soft
tyres was easily faster than the Ferrari, passing not
only the Spaniard, but also Buemi. So, the order in
which the cars crossed the line at the end of the 57
laps was: Vettel, Hamilton, Button, Barrichello, Kubica,
Sutil, Kobayashi, Buemi, Alonso and De La Rosa tenth in
the last points position, while Massa was classified
fourteenth at the flag. Then, no less than nine drivers
were summoned to see the Stewards for not obeying a
minimum speed rule behind the Safety Car: each of them
was given a five second penalty, so that official
classification now reads: Vettel, Hamilton, Button,
Barrichello, Kubica, Sutil, Kobayashi, Alonso, Buemi and
Rosberg tenth for the final point, with Felipe just
behind him.
Ferrari lashed out at the Safety Car "episode" within
minutes of the chequered flag being waved, posting this
brief statement on its website: "A scandal, that's the opinion of so
many fans and employees who are all in agreement: there
is no other way to describe what happened during the
European Grand Prix. The way the race and the incidents
during it were managed raise doubts that could see
Formula 1 lose some credibility again, as it was seen
around the world."
Ferrari
vice-president, Piero Ferrari also, somewhat
surprisingly, became involved, he commented last night:
"I am incredulous and bitter, not just for Ferrari, but
for the sport as a whole, as this is not the sort of
thing one expects from professionals. For a long time
now, I have also followed races in championships in the
United States, where the appearance of the Safety Car is
a frequent occurrence, but I have never seen anything
similar to what happened today at the Valencia circuit.
If it raises some doubts over the actions that led to a
false race, to me that would seem more than reasonable."
Stefano
Domenicali: “The outcome
of this Grand Prix leaves us with a very bitter taste.
We had everything we needed to clinch a good result and
we have ended up with a handful of points which is even
less than we brought home from our worst race, a month
ago in Turkey. It is a real shame because over this
weekend we have shown that we have made a good step
forward in terms of performance and the opening stage of
the race looked promising. Then came the unfortunate
blow linked to the safety car period, which arrived at
the very worst moment for us in that both our cars had
just gone past the pit lane entry and therefore were
forced to do a full lap behind the Safety Car. And that
definitely compromised our race. I think that the
incidents linked to the neutralisation put some
questions on the table regarding how to manage
situations like this and the eventual penalties linked
to them. We have to ensure that our sport remains
credible in the eyes of those involved and those who
follow it, at the track and in front of their TV
screens.”
Fernando Alonso: “The race was ruined
by the Safety Car and everything that followed on from
that. I am disappointed most of all for the thousands of
spectators who were here today and saw how the situation
was handled. I am very bitter about what happened today.
I was in third place, a metre behind Hamilton at the
moment the Safety Car came out on track and, at the
chequered flag, he was second and I was ninth, even
though we had made the same choice of strategy. The
penalty he was given came when it could no longer have
any real influence on his finishing position. From then
on, my race was compromised. I was always in traffic and
I did not get the performance I had expected from the
hard tyres: this also explains the difficulty I had in
passing first Sutil and then Buemi. This is definitely a
bad result for us, but I still hang onto the idea that
we will do the maths at the end, in Abu Dhabi: incidents
we have no control over will be made up for. We must
continue to work and push on the car development front
to try and be the quickest on the track.”
Felipe Massa: “Another horrible race on
the back of the one in Canada. We were lying third and
fourth with cars capable of getting a great result and
instead, everyone has seen how it ended. On the lap when
the accident happened, we were coming into the final
corner and there was nothing, then suddenly, the Safety
Car came out on track and I saw in the mirrors that the
cars behind us were pitting: our chance of fighting for
the podium went up in smoke at that moment. The
difference between us and Hamilton is that he committed
an infraction and we did not, but his penalty had no
effect on his result. I think that errors were made in
the way this situation was managed. From then on, our
race was practically one long procession in traffic with
no chance of changing anything. A real shame because
today we could have done really well.”
Chris Dyer: “We are very disappointed
with the outcome of this race. The arrival of the Safety
Car on track ruined what should have been a very good
race for us, given the potential at our disposal. It is
very, very difficult to overtake at this track therefore
our race was totally compromised by an innocuous
occurrence like a Safety Car period. In performance
terms, this weekend has shown that we have made a step
forward, but at the same time, we still have a lot of
work to do to be where we want to be.”
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