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Fernando
Alonso qualified second for the last round of the
championship in Barcelona, so today’s sixth fastest time
is not his best performance of the season, but with
team-mate Felipe Massa making it through to the final
Top Ten shoot-out for the first time in 2012, posting
the seventh time of the afternoon, it was overall the
best team performance for Scuderia Ferrari so far this
year. And what better place to achieve this upturn in
form, than at the famous Monegasque street circuit where
overtaking is always difficult, whatever the strategy
choices and whatever the tyre performance. Given that
one of the strengths of the F2012 is its speed off the
starting line when the lights go out, there is cause for
optimism this afternoon in the Prancing Horse camp.
The Monegasque event always throws up the unexpected and
it’s fair to say that not many people in the paddock had
considered Michael Schumacher as a favourite contender
for pole position. But sure enough, come the end of Q3,
the most successful driver in the history of the sport
and a five times winner here, had set the fastest time.
However, even as he punched the air with delight, the
Mercedes driver knew he would be starting tomorrow’s
race from sixth place, because of a penalty given him
after the last round of the championship in Spain. There
is no room for sentimentality in sport and even though
Team Principal Stefano Domenicali congratulated the
German, the team will be happy that Fernando thus moves
up one place to fifth and more importantly, goes across
to the clean side of the track, straight ahead of
Felipe.
So with the oldest man on the grid demoted to sixth, it
leaves Mark Webber starting from pole position for Red
Bull, with the second Mercedes of Nico Rosberg alongside
him. The second row sees Lewis Hamilton in third place
for McLaren and Romain Grosjean fourth in the Lotus.
Then we have Alonso and Schumacher sharing the third
row, while Felipe finds himself on the inside of Kimi
Raikkonen in the second Lotus on row 4. 78 laps of this
3.34 kilometre track always throws up something
unexpected. Tomorrow will it come from the tyres, as
Thursday’s rain means there is not much data for all the
teams to work on relating to the durability of the Soft
and Supersoft Pirellis, or will it come from the
weather, given the Principality’s microclimate can often
confuse the forecasters, or will the Monegasque roulette
wheel stop in the Safety Car slot to add yet another
possibility to the mix? The answers will start to come
through after the lights go out above the grid shortly
after 2 in the afternoon tomorrow. With both F2012s
starting high up the grid, the Scuderia will be hoping
to bring home a good points haul and possibly see a
driver on the unique “Royal” podium alongside the
start-finish line.
Stefano Domenicali: “All in all, we can
be pleased with the overall result of this qualifying,
the first time this season that we have managed to get
both our drivers through to Q3, I am particularly happy
for Felipe who finally managed to show what he is
capable of. As has more than ever been the case this
year, all three parts that go to make up qualifying are
very closely contested and it only takes the slightest
thing to turn things on their head. Tomorrow’s race will
have everything going for it, from the first to the last
lap. We know just how much the many imponderables in
this race can effect the outcome and this time, there’s
the additional factor of tyre behaviour over a long run,
given that no one was able to check on that during free
practice. We must be ready to deal with any eventuality
and react to every changing situation. Finally, I want
to congratulate Michael Schumacher for his fantastic
pole position: I think this result comes at the right
time for him and on a track that has played a truly
significant role in his career.”
Fernando Alonso: “In Italy there’s a
saying, “he who goes slowly, goes well and goes far,”
right? Well, that’s what we are doing: step by step we
are getting closer. I am happy with this qualifying, the
best as a team that we have seen this season. I have had
a good feeling all weekend long. Maybe in Q3, we could
have shaved a few hundredths off here and there, but I
don’t think I’d have moved up any places, given that the
driver in front of me is three tenths away. Usually here
it falls to the top three on the grid to fight for the
win, so I think that our realistic goal is a place on
the podium, but we also know that surprises are the
order of the day. We saw that again today, with Michael
on pole: I was very pleased for him, even though he
won’t be able to make the most of it because of the
penalty. This afternoon and tomorrow morning I will have
to work along with the team to decide on the best
strategy. The Softs behave well, but we will start on
the Supersofts, therefore we go into it a bit blind in
terms of how long they will last: we will find out in
the race how they perform. In terms of the championship,
it’s a good grid, given that of the immediate rivals,
only Hamilton starts ahead of us and Vettel is actually
ninth. Michael alongside me on the grid? It’s been a
while, so it will be nice to have him close by, but I’ll
be concentrating on passing the four in front rather
than thinking about the sixth placed man.”
Felipe Massa: “It was a good qualifying
and I could definitely have done even better than this
seventh place: fifth was within my reach, given what we
saw in Q1 and Q2. Unfortunately, in Q3 I did not manage
to get a perfectly clean lap because of traffic, but
that’s an easy thing to find here. Having said that, I
am very happy with how things have gone in this Grand
Prix so far. Finally, I am having fun at the wheel of
the F2012: clearly the set-up we have chosen here makes
it much easier to make the most of its potential. It’s a
point to keep in mind for the rest of the championship
too. We still struggle a bit in the places where
traction is crucial, which can easily be seen by
comparing our car, corner by corner with the best ones,
however in this area too we have made progress. Michael
did a great lap and I congratulate him: a shame that he
will then find himself very close to me on the grid
tomorrow afternoon. Let’s hope we have a good race
tomorrow and that a new championship can really get
underway for me!”
Pat Fry: “I don’t think we could have
done better in terms of performance. As I said
yesterday, we have got closer to the quickest but not to
the extent that we can fight for pole position. We still
have work to do to close the gap. However, it’s very
positive to have finally managed to get both our drivers
into Q3. Tomorrow, it will be very important to
interpret the race strategy as well as possible because
the number of variables in play is greater than usual,
given that there is not enough data on tyre behaviour. I
think we could witness quite a variety of strategies and
we must do a good job of reacting to any eventuality:
the Safety Car often plays a role at this track. On top
of that, there is always a question mark as to the
weather: at the moment it is not forecast to rain, but
you never know what can happen here!”
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