07/04/2007
NEWS STORY
Second race of the season and second pole position for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro, this time courtesy of Felipe Massa. It is the sixth time that a Ferrari driver will start the Malaysian Grand Prix from pole, the 188th in the history of the Prancing Horse in Formula 1. It was Felipe's fourth career pole.
Jean Todt: Today's qualifying was very exciting, with the fight going down to the wire between us and those who seem to be our closest rivals. The changing weather, with the threat of imminent rain, rather mixed up the programme. Felipe put in an extraordinary lap and I am particularly happy for him after his troubles in Melbourne qualifying. Kimi did a great job to take third spot. We have taken an important step towards our targets for this weekend, but the key part comes tomorrow. The race here will be particularly tough on both the cars and drivers because of the high temperatures. As usual, reliability, strategy, team work and the performance of the drivers will be the factors that decide the final result.
Felipe Massa: I am very happy with this pole. On my second run I had a bit of traffic but on the last one, I got a really clean lap and I got a hundred percent out of the car. At turn 7 and in the final sector there were a few drops of rain, but luckily it did not get worse and I was able to finish my run without any bother. Obviously, tomorrow I want to finish the race in the same position in which I start it. We know we are up against some very strong opponents and that this is always a hard race, both from the physical point of view and in terms of the stresses on the car. In these very high temperatures, it is like racing in a sauna, and the track became very slippery, but I was able to put together my best lap right at the last minute.
Kimi Raikkonen: All in all, today's result is what we could have expected. The balance of my car was better than in yesterday's free practice, but still not perfect for a single timed lap. But it is very good over a long run and so I think I can be a frontrunner in tomorrow's race. The battle was very close but we saw already in Melbourne that the McLaren is competitive in qualifying. The heat? It's the same for everyone so it should not be a decisive factor tomorrow.
Luca Baldisserri: A very exciting qualifying, closely fought to the very last moment! We are happy with the overall result, with Felipe on pole and Kimi starting right behind him. Qualifying was affected by the weather forecast and the risk of rain meant we had to change our plans slightly, especially in terms of how we used the tyres. The F2007 showed it has great potential and we are sure we can get the most out of them tomorrow, while well aware that it will be very difficult as we are up against very competitive adversaries.
To check out our Sepang qualifying gallery, click here