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The current
world championship leader will start tomorrow’s third
round of the World Championship from ninth place on the
grid and his team-mate is twelfth. Under normal F1
circumstances, that would seem an unusual scenario, but
it’s not, given that the current leader is Fernando
Alonso in the F2012 that Scuderia Ferrari knows is not
yet competitive enough when compared to its usual
rivals. His team-mate, Felipe Massa missed the cut into
Q3 by around two tenths of a second, getting closer in
terms of lap time to Fernando than in the first two
rounds of this year’s series. Proving that this season
is throwing up plenty of unusual scenarios is the fact
that the Brazilian Ferrari man starts on the sixth row
on the outside of reigning champion, Sebastian Vettel in
the Red Bull. So it’s been a case of different day, same
result, as the Ferrari grid positions are identical to
those at the Sepang circuit three weeks ago.
In fact, the top part of the grid also looks surprising,
although it has to be said that the experts predicted
Mercedes, with its unique aero elements, would be quick
at this track. And so it was, allowing Nico Rosberg to
take his first ever F1 pole position, which means a
Mercedes also starts from the number one slot for the
first time, if one discounts the Silver Arrows that
raced over half a century ago. In fact, it was a good
day for the Anglo-German outfit, as they will monopolise
the front row for tomorrow’s Chinese Grand Prix.
Rosberg’s team-mate, Michael Schumacher was third
fastest this afternoon, behind Lewis Hamilton. But as
the McLaren man drops from second to seventh on the grid
with a penalty for requiring a gearbox change, the
German veteran will have his first front row start since
making his F1 comeback.
Hot on the heels of Sergio Perez’s second place in the
Ferrari-powered Sauber in the Malaysia race, today it
was his team-mate, Kamui Kobayashi who delivered a fine
performance and will start from the inside of the second
row with Kimi Raikkonen in fourth place for Lotus. Row 3
features fifth placed Jenson Button in the McLaren and
Mark Webber the best of the Red Bulls. Fernando shares
Row 5 with Romain Grosjean in the Lotus. Behind Felipe,
the remaining 12 drivers all line up in neat team pairs.
A prediction for dry weather tomorrow means there are
unlikely to be as many surprises as in the rain soaked
Sepang circuit, but the “lively” grid might throw some
opportunities our way. Whatever happens, the Chinese
Grand Prix looks like sticking to its tradition of
providing an interesting afternoon’s entertainment.
Stefano Domenicali: “Whoever
understands that is very clever! I challenge anyone to
produce a rational explanation of how this afternoon’s
qualifying went, not just for ourselves, but also as far
as almost all the other cars are concerned. We went from
having very small gaps in Q2, with eleven drivers in
around three tenths of one another, to much bigger
differences in Q3, with very strong fluctuations in some
cases. Given our current situation and above all, the
fact that at this track, the major weaknesses of the
F2012 seem to be particularly marked, this result is an
accurate reflection of where we are in terms of outright
performance, even if we have seen that later, in the
race, things can change. Sure, it’s not what we were
looking for at the start of the season, but today we
have to make a virtue of necessity. With a grid like
tomorrow’s we can expect an even more open race than we
might have done going into the weekend. Our aim is
clear: to get both cars home in the points and make the
most of any opportunity that comes along during the
race.”
Fernando Alonso: “We knew this would be
a difficult qualifying and that’s how it turned out. We
managed to get into Q3, staying ahead of Vettel by a few
thousandths. Then, from Q2 to Q3, the wind changed
direction and that was penalising. The car is what it is
and the improvements we brought here are not sufficient
to produce a jump in performance and so this position
corresponds more or less to our current potential. Sure,
we cannot be happy to be a second off pole position, but
all we can do is work to try and close this gap. If we
do enough of a good job then we can think about winning,
otherwise not. But I remain optimistic: even in 2010, we
were significantly behind the best, but all the same, we
got to the final race leading the World Championship…The
starting grid is very exciting and curious, with two
Mercedes, one Sauber and a Lotus in front of the rest.
We cannot permit ourselves to make any mistakes because
we certainly don’t have the best car: if we manage to
operate perfectly, as we did in Australia and Malaysia,
then we can think about bringing home valuable points.”
Felipe Massa: “On the one hand I am
obviously unhappy not to have made it through to Q3 but,
on the other, I have to be pleased with my position if I
consider where we were this morning at the end of FP3.
In the afternoon, the situation improved, the car had
much more grip and I managed to be more competitive, but
I couldn’t say exactly why. Probably the track
conditions changed in a way that suited us. We hope to
continue like this tomorrow afternoon and to bring home
a good result: it’s really needed right now! I so much
want a normal race, a calm one in which I manage to do
my job well and pick up some points. I still don’t have
any and the moment has come to remove this zero from the
classification.”
Pat Fry: “This result is in line with
our potential in this initial part of the season, but
the way we got there was rather surprising. I am
struggling to remember the last time Q2 was as close as
this afternoon’s, with eleven drivers all within less
than four tenths and then, a few minutes later,
significant gaps reappearing between the top and the
bottom in Q3. From what we can understand after a quick
first analysis, the optimum useage window for the tyres
Pirelli has brought here is so tight that it only takes
equally small changes in temperature to significantly
change car behaviour. After a third free practice
session that was particularly difficult, we made some
changes to the set-up on Felipe’s car, however, they
alone cannot explain the improvement we saw in
qualifying. Having said that, now we must think only of
preparing as well as possible for a race that will be
long and stressful, especially for the tyres. No rain is
forecast for the afternoon, therefore it will be
difficult to repeat the amazing result from Sepang, but
all the same, we must be always ready to exploit every
opportunity, which is the norm with a team that does not
have the most competitive package in the field. We have
the possibility of getting both drivers into the points
and this must be our target: we will gladly take
anything extra that might come our way!”
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