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There were
two sides to qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix at
Barcelona for Scuderia Ferrari, as Fernando Alonso was
third fastest, while Felipe Massa ended Q2 only in
seventeenth place, however the Spaniard's pace gives the
team hope that its raft of changes to the F2012 have
turned the corner. The Spanish driver’s position is the
best result since Saturday at Silverstone in 2011, and
that third became second when pole winner Lewis Hamilton
was moved to the back of the grid after a technical
infringement. Both drivers were on identical tyre useage
programmes during the first two parts of the session:
one set of Hard and then one of Soft in Q1, then one
used and one new set of Soft in Q2. This meant for the
first time this year, Fernando was finally able to
tackle Q3 on a level footing with the others.
Hamilton
took his third pole of the season, so no big surprise
there, as he thus provided McLaren with its 150th pole
in Formula 1, although it was short lived as he was
denoted the entire length of the grid. However, the
paddock pundits were left awestruck when the name Pastor Maldonaldo finally emerged next to “P2” on the final
qualifying time sheet. For the Williams driver it was
his best ever performance in Formula 1 and must have
been a heart-warming sight for Sir Frank Williams who is
having an informal reception in the paddock last night,
to celebrate his recent seventieth birthday.
Already on Friday and again yesterday, the fans have
been out in force and although there is one other
Spaniard, Pedro de la Rosa and a Spanish team, Hispania,
on the grid, it’s fair to say that most of the crowd
only have eyes for Fernando. And this third place is a
great opportunity for the Ferrari man to give them
plenty to cheer about today. In the Drivers’
classification, the man from Oviedo is only 10 points
behind the leader Sebastian Vettel and the German could
do no better than eighth yesterday in his Red Bull,
while Jenson Button and Mark Webber, who are ahead of
the Spaniard in the championship are only eleventh and
twelfth respectively on the grid at the Catalunya track.
They all moved up one place each however when Hamilton
was demoted. The second row of the grid will see the
Lotus of Romain Grosjean just ahead of his team-mate
Kimi Raikkonen.
In the other F2012, Felipe Massa had an unlucky
afternoon, blighted mainly by traffic, as he got stuck
far too often behind other drivers warming their tyres
in preparation for a timed lap, while he was on his on
new Soft rubber in Q2 going for a time. In such a tight
field, with very small gaps between the cars, he
finished around half a second off the tenth placed man
and that insignificant gap was enough to put him back in
seventeenth spot. He will now start sixteenth. 66 laps
of this demanding circuit are going to present a tough
challenge for the Brazilian this afternoon.
Stefano Domenicali:
“The session was very closely contested and packed with
surprises. Finally this year, we managed to get to Q3 in
a condition that meant we could show our worth, at least
with one of the drivers. Fernando did a fantastic job
from the first to the final lap of the session,
constantly improving and, once again, getting all the
potential out of the car. Felipe fought hard, but on his
lap with new Soft tyres in Q2, he had a lot of traffic
and lost a few tenths that would have brought him close
to tenth place. We had a lot of new parts on the F2012
and the aim was to make up at least part of the gap to
the best in terms of pure performance. We have made a
step forward, this is a fact. Tomorrow’s race seems very
hard to predict and tyre performance will make the
difference. The weather could also play an important
role, given we have already seen that a few degrees more
or less can change the cards on the table.”
Fernando Alonso: “This third place is
not what we had expected. We were counting on making a
step forward that would allow us to get into Q3 with
less difficulty than in the first races of the season
and we managed it. But we certainly did not think we
could be so high up the grid. I don’t know if this
position is a true reflection of our car’s performance –
it’s definitely not normal for a Red Bull and a McLaren
to be eliminated in Q2 and that the other Red Bull gets
into Q3 with no sets of new Soft tyre available – but
what is certain is that the new parts we have brought
here have resulted in us taking a step in the right
direction: sure, it’s not yet enough to fight for the
very top places. It’s a good basis to start from for
this weekend, but the points come tomorrow. We will try
and get a good start, especially as some of my main
opponents in the title fight start behind us and we must
try and make the most of that. Tyre performance will be
a critical factor: we will have to be careful, because
the forecast is for different temperatures to today and
that could throw up some surprises. Racing in front of
this amazing crowd always gives me some extra
motivation!”
Felipe Massa:
“When qualifying is as close as this, it is vital to
manage to have everything fall into place on a clean lap
and I never got that chance. On my second run in Q2, I
came across at least seven or eight cars that were
preparing their tyres for their timed lap and the time I
lost definitely cost me dear. It’s a real shame to start
seventeenth in a race in which our car has shown it has
made a step forward in terms of performance, as could be
seen from Fernando’s result. The new aerodynamic parts
which we introduced on the F2012 seem to have worked
well – we have a bit more aerodynamic downforce and a
bit less drag – but we are well aware that there is
still a lot to do. Tomorrow, on a track as hard as this
one on the tyres, strategy will be crucial: let’s hope I
can make it into the points.”
Pat Fry: “A good result with Fernando,
who managed to qualify third, the best performance of
the season. A shame for Felipe, who suffered because of
traffic on his quick lap in Q2: right now, I cannot say
if he would have made the cut out of Q2, but it
definitely cost him some places. We brought various
updates here, especially aerodynamic ones: some worked
well, meeting our expectations, others less so: looking
at this afternoon’s result we can say we have made a
step forward, but it’s clear that there is still a lot
of work to do to always be at the same level as the
best. However, third place is a confidence boost and it
is down to everyone who, these past weeks, back home and
at the track, has worked hard to reach this objective.
Now we must confirm this progress in the race as well.
The forecast is for slightly lower temperatures tomorrow
and that could have an effect on tyre behaviour. We have
seen various choices in terms of tyre management: now we
will see who made the right choice.”
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