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Scuderia Ferrari bounced back from its
recent woes in style yesterday as Fernando
Alonso set the fastest lap of the day come
the end of the first two free practice
sessions which were held ahead of this
weekend's Monaco Grand Prix. |
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Ferrari bounced back from
their recent woes in style yesterday as Fernando Alonso
set the fastest lap of the day come the end of the first
two free practice sessions ahead of this weekend's
Monaco Grand Prix. That statement has not been possible
in any other session in any of the five previous race
weekends. It’s a good sign and on the only circuit that
boasts a tunnel, maybe the Spaniard’s performance could
be seen as the light at the end of the tunnel that
Scuderia Ferrari has been searching for, for some time
now. In the other 150º Italia, Felipe Massa also went
well to post the sixth fastest time, just 65 hundredths
slower than Fernando. In Monaco, everything is
spectacular, even the free practice action and Felipe in
particular had his car dancing sideways at times,
perilously close to the unforgiving barriers that
claimed a few victims today.
Given that the cars have just had a few days rest since
racing in the Spanish Grand Prix, the reasons behind
this apparent increase in competitiveness, even allowing
for special Monaco set-ups adopted on the cars, are more
down to the nature of the circuit and the type of tyres
available from Pirelli this weekend. As the Ferrari
drivers and management have explained endlessly, the
main problem with the car is a lack of aerodynamic
downforce, but this becomes less significant as the
speed drops. On the twisty streets of the Principality,
there are no fast straights or corners and therefore the
weakness of the Ferrari is less on display. Add in the
fact that it is far more suited to the soft and super
soft Pirelli tyres and the reason for this sudden
increase in performance is self-evident.
However, after a day away from track action tomorrow,
the picture might not be so clear on Saturday come time
for qualifying. Red Bull has dominated the season so far
and there is no reason to think its cars won’t work well
at all types of track. Lewis Hamilton was second fastest
for McLaren, ahead of Nico Rosberg in the Mercedes,
while Jenson Button was fourth for McLaren ahead of
Sebastian Vettel.
Fernando Alonso: “In Monaco it’s mainly
a question of having a good feel for the car: the more
the driver has, the harder he can push, lap after lap.
It seems we are a bit more competitive than elsewhere,
although one has to adopt the usual caution linked to
the unknown factor of how much fuel the others were
running. However, the reason is very simple in that
here, the aerodynamics count for less and so we are
suffering less. On a track with the lowest average
speed, some weaknesses are hidden by other factors, such
as the mechanical side and the engine. I immediately
felt comfortable here, right from the morning, so I was
able to push harder and harder, because the car was
reacting well and I had confidence in it. I am pleased,
but we know this is just the first day and that the Red
Bulls could be hiding a bit, before coming out for
Saturday’s qualifying. Saturday will be a much more
stressful day because here, the slightest error carries
a heavy penalty. We must try to take some risks, because
we need to close the gap to the best. As for the tyres,
I think that their performance is reasonably similar to
what we saw in winter testing, even though temperatures
are now much higher: compared to the other races, there
is not such a big difference between the prime and the
options, or at least that’s the initial impression.”
Felipe Massa: “I am reasonably happy
with the car, even if there is still some oversteer,
especially with the Supersoft. Compared to Barcelona, I
reckon we will be better equipped to fight: it’s not
like on other occasions when it was clear we could not
get the tyres to work. There were moments when I was a
bit on the limit, so that I even found myself brushing
the barriers at least three times. I did a long run on
the option to try and find its limit in terms of wear.
Overtaking will be difficult, as usual at this circuit:
but maybe thanks to the KERS it will be possible to
overtake a car that is struggling with its tyres,
although it will never be easy. Traffic? Here it’s
impossible to avoid it: today I found myself in a
position where I was holding up Fernando, but I had a
McLaren ahead of me, which in turn had slowed me down.”
Pat Fry: “A good start to this very
special weekend that takes place against this always
incredible backdrop. Today we concentrated mainly on
finding the best set-up for the car and on checking the
behaviour of the two types of tyre that Pirelli has
brought for this track, one of which, the Supersoft is
making its debut at a race. From what we could see, the
times are pretty consistent, but we know that the track
here changes from Thursday to Saturday, so we cannot
take anything for granted. This morning we checked a
handful of minor aerodynamic updates – the 150º Italia
is basically the same as it was at the Catalunya circuit
– and then we tried to deliver Felipe and Fernando a
balanced car in which they could have full confidence to
push to the limit. Now we have a bit more time than
usual to prepare as well as possible for qualifying and
the race. There are some areas on which need to improve
and we can, but from what we have seen today, at least
it looks as though we are on the right road to being in
the running.”
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