Ferrari failed to pay due
respect to the legendary Spa-Francorchamps circuit in
final qualifying yesterday and as the rain spluttered
down the red cars wound up in fifth and tenth places on
the grid with Felipe Massa getting the better of his
team mate Fernando Alonso. The Spaniard in particular
suffered with only one set of soft tyres remaining for
the Q3 session meaning that his banker lap was set on
hard compound Bridgestones while all the other nine
drivers were on the soft option.
“We definitely cannot be
happy with this result,” said Ferrari Team Principal
Stefano Domenicali. “Qualifying was complicated by the
changing weather conditions which might have been easy
to predict from [Friday] but, having said that, clearly
we failed to extract all the potential at our disposal
and now we have to understand why. We are expecting a
difficult race [today], when it will be important to try
and make the most of every opportunity, especially as
our main rivals will be starting ahead of us.”
At the start of Q1,
nearly all the cars were already lined up in pit lane
waiting for the red light to change to green, in order
to put in a “safe” lap time as soon as possible, because
rain was due to arrive shortly. But before a single car
had completed a flying lap, Petrov spun his Renault into
the barriers which brought out the red flag. At the
restart, when indeed the rain had arrived, another queue
formed for the lights, this time with the majority of
cars running intermediate rain tyres. Before the end of
Q2, the track was drying again, which prompted another
rush for the pits to go out on slicks. The final top ten
shoot-out began in the dry: Felipe put in a competitive
time on his first run, but his second one coincided with
the rain returning. This was also the case for Fernando,
but because the Spaniard only had one set of new softs,
he had not got a first run in the bank and his second
one was naturally not going to be as competitive as it
took place on a damp track.
While there were
plenty of surprises and the pole position result
maintained what is becoming a 2010 tradition, as Mark
Webber recorded Red Bull’s twelfth pole in thirteen
Grands Prix. The Australian shares the front row for
tomorrow’s 44 lap race, with Lewis Hamilton in the
McLaren, while the second row features the Renault of
Robert Kubica in third and the other Red Bull of
Sebastian Vettel fourth. Felipe shares the third row
with Jenson Button in the McLaren, while between the two
F10s are Barrichello, Sutil and Hulkenberg. Today’s 44
lap race could well be affected by changeable weather,
but asking for an accurate forecast more than an hour or
so before the start is a pointless question. The key, as
always at Spa, will be to react quickly and in the right
way to whatever the elements have in store.
Felipe Massa: “Definitely a difficult
qualifying. Already, we had seen that the McLarens and
Red Bulls were quicker than us and they confirmed that,
when we had a few difficulties, failing to get the
result we were expecting: which means we will be trying
to improve our positions tomorrow in the race. As
usually happens here in Belgium, you can predict that
the changeable weather might play a crucial role: it
will be vital to manage the situation as well as
possible. On my first run in Q3 I got a good lap, but
maybe it could have been a couple of tenths quicker,
while on the second one, I immediately had rain at Turn
1 and I locked the wheels and I decided to pit without
completing the lap, because I would not have been able
to improve my lap time. If we have a track that is only
slightly damp but not too wet, it could be a problem
because the rain tyres get destroyed very quickly and it
will be necessary to manage them very carefully.”
Fernando Alonso: “Obviously, I can’t be
pleased with this result, but it has to be said that if
there is one track where grid position is less critical
than others, then it is this one, both because of the
track characteristics and because the weather can be
very changeable: in some cases the right decision at the
right time can see you make up an advantage of a minute,
therefore we will have to be clever and make the most of
every opportunity. In Q3, I only had one set of new soft
tyres left and I used it on my second run when,
unfortunately, there was a bit of rain. There’s no point
in making a drama over this tenth place: we must stay
calm and concentrated, because qualifying is one thing
and the race is quite another when the points are given
out, not today.”
Chris Dyer: “We cannot be pleased with
the outcome of this qualifying session. Of course, the
fact the weather was so changeable made running the
session more tricky, especially for Fernando, who found
himself with just one set of new soft tyres left in Q3:
when he used them there was just a short shower which
prevented him from setting the time he was capable of
doing and which would have seen him starting a bit
higher up the grid. Spa is famous for being
unpredictable in terms of the weather: and once again
this was confirmed today, with the possibility that
tomorrow’s race will also be similarly affected,
therefore we will have to do a good job in managing the
possible variables.”
