21/03/2008
NEWS STORY
Over the two free practice sessions for the Malaysian Grand Prix, the two F2008 of Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa completed around one hundred laps. The day's technical programme, as usual for a Friday, centred on finding the best set up on the car and a comparison of the two types of tyre brought to the track by Bridgestone. Despite losing a bit of time in the morning session because of a misunderstanding between the pit wall and the garage left Kimi stranded on the track with no fuel, the programme was completed with almost no technical problems.
"The start of this weekend is reasonably positive," commented Stefano Domenicali. "Kimi and Felipe reckoned they were happy with the way the cars went, both over a single lap and on a longer run, with both types of tyre. From what we have seen and considering all the usual Friday unknown quantities, I think we will be competitive in qualifying and in the race."
Felipe Massa: "I am very happy with these two sessions. The car proved to be very quick and consistent on both types of tyre. It's a shame I was unable to get the most out of the second set of soft tyres, when I found myself behind Hamilton who was going slowly. We are working in the right direction for qualifying and the race."
Kimi Raikkonen: "This morning I lost time because of a communication problem within the team, but we made up for it in the second session. The car seems to be going well and I am pleased with the work we have done. I worked mainly on the harder tyres, but I think that even with the softs, from what we have seen, we can be competitive. It is always difficult to say where we are compared to our rivals, but I think we can face the rest of the weekend with confidence."
Luca Baldisserri: "This morning we got our lines of communication mixed up between the garage and the pit wall, which left Kimi stuck out on the track without fuel, but in the afternoon, we were able to get more done, without any technical problems whatsoever. Both drivers found good settings on their cars and we got a lot of data on the behaviour of the two types of tyre. Now we must prepare very carefully for qualifying, because we know how important it is to start from the front. All in all, we are satisfied with the way the first day has gone here in Sepang."