29/08/2009
NEWS STORY
Qualifying did not live up to the expectations of Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro, with one driver, Kimi Raikkonen on the third row and the other, Luca Badoer, on the last one.
Stefano Domenicali: One could certainly say the starting grid order is unexpected. As we have already seen several times this season, the pecking order between the teams can change really suddenly from one race to the next. For our part, we would have liked to be a little bit higher up with Kimi, but all the same, we are in a position that will allow us to fight for a podium finish, especially when looking at the F60's performance over a long run. As for Luca, once again we could see an improvement in his performance, but unfortunately, it was not enough to avoid him ending up last on the grid again.
Luca Badoer: I'm not happy, because this morning, at the end of free practice, I had hoped to make it through to Q2. Unfortunately, partly because of traffic and partly because of a few small problems, I didn't manage to put together a perfect lap. I was counting on doing so on my final run, but there was the incident with Vettel which then led to me going off the track and that put an end to my qualifying. I have made another step forward in terms of performance, but it's still not enough: for me the hardest thing is getting into a rhythm and finding the limits of the car. Unfortunately, there's no opportunity to do the testing that would put that right. I am sure that tomorrow, I will perform better than I did in the Valencia race. I will try and do my best.
Kimi Raikkonen: Of course I would have preferred to have started from further up the grid, but I think we did our best today. We knew it would be hard to be at the front, but all the same, this is a good position, especially as the gaps between the front runners are pretty tight. With more fuel on board, the car handles better than on a light load and that was the case again in this qualifying session. Such an unusual grid makes it even harder to make any predictions for tomorrow and we will have to make the most of any opportunities that present themselves. The final outcome will depend a lot on the first two corners after the start. The fact the car handles differently at various sections of the track can be explained by the lack of aerodynamic downforce we have this season.
Chris Dyer: We are a bit disappointed because, after yesterday's showing, we expected a better result. Sixth place for Kimi must be assessed in the light of the different fuel loads of all the cars in the top ten. We believe we have come up with a good strategy and, given the car's performance over a long run, we expect that,yet again, we can fight for a place on the podium. As for Luca, everyone can see that, day by day, his performance level is improving: unfortunately, it is not yet at a sufficient level to see him through at least to Q2.