italiaspeed.com: SCUDERIA FERRARI - 2010 F1 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

If sceptics were unconvinced at Scuderia Ferrari’s claims that the F10 has been a much improved car over the last few races, then they were given clear proof in Saturday afternoon’s qualifying for today’s German Grand Prix. Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa will start the eleventh round of the World Championship from second and third places on the grid and, although pole is pole, whatever the margin, Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel only took the coveted number one slot by a mere two thousandths of a second.

Yesterday’s excellent showing, during a very exciting battle in Q3, puts the Scuderia duo in a very strong position to fight for the win or, at the very least, to bring home a big number of points. In the past few races, the F10’s race pace has been excellent, but poor qualifying performances or unusual race situations have prevented the Prancing Horses from galloping at top speed. It seems the time has come for that to change tomorrow.

Mark Webber finished fourth in the second Red Bull, while fifth place went to Jenson Button, who pipped his McLaren team-mate and championship leader, Lewis Hamilton. At only slightly over four and a half kilometres in length, it takes no less than 67 laps of the Hockenheimring to make a race distance, so tomorrow afternoon’s event will be a tough one, where two key elements could play a vital role: the first is not one that even this high-tech sport can influence, namely the weather, which has been so unpredictable this weekend, while the second will be the tyre strategy in terms of how best manage to switch from the super soft to the hard tyre. With the rain affecting much of practice, the track surface is finally producing much more grip, which means predicting tyre behaviour is more complex than usual.

Stefano Domenicali :“We are very pleased with this result, even if there’s just a hint of regret that pole escaped us by a whisker. This result is down to the whole team, both at the track and at the factory, which over the past weeks, has put in an incredible effort to improve the performance of our car. Already, for the past three races, we could see we were getting better but, for various reasons and events, we did not pick up the results that were within our grasp. Now we have to remain focussed and prepare for tomorrow, down to the smallest detail. Above all, we hope we can finally have a normal race. The time has come to reap the rewards of all the work we have done so far.”

Fernando Alonso: “I am happy to be back on the front row after such a long time! We have been competitive all weekend, so this result is not a surprise: although perhaps the small gap to the Red Bull is, given that so far, even when we were close in free practice, or in Q1 and Q2, then in Q3, they always seemed to have that little bit extra. For a few races now, the F10 has improved a lot and that has finally led to us being in the fight for pole position. We have had a good Saturday, but now we have to do the same again on Sunday, as the points are only given out tomorrow. I am happy that Felipe is also in a good position as that means we can defend ourselves, particularly from the McLarens on the opening lap, because with their top speed they could pose a real threat. Tyres could be a significant unknown factor tomorrow: the track has improved so much over the past two days and we are using them much more than yesterday, so we could expect some surprises on the strategy front. The start? At Silverstone, the theoretically slower dirty side was actually cleaner and I hope the same will be true here! We will give it our all in trying to win, because looking at the classification, we need to bring home as many points as possible.”

Felipe Massa: “I am pleased with this third place, as it means I am in a good position for the start of the race. It gives us a chance to score a lot of points for the team and that is our objective for tomorrow, as we have lost too many in recent races! Therefore, we hope that the negative run that dates back to Canada will end here in Germany. The gap between my time and that of the first two is due mainly to the fact that I never managed to produce a perfect lap on my last run. Tomorrow, we will do our best: yesterday, we saw that our race pace is competitive and we will try to make the most of that. On this track, with so many slow corners and where it is important to have a car that is good under braking, the F10 seems to be working very well.”

Chris Dyer: “A great result which confirms what a good job the team has done in improving the F10. I think everyone now realises that. Clearly, missing out on pole by just two thousandths is a slight disappointment, but that is far outweighed by the satisfaction of getting one car onto the first row and the other on the second, something we have not managed for quite some time. For several races now we have seen signs of progress, but we did not manage to turn it into points, but now the time has come to do so.”