Bahrain Grand Prix – Sakhir,
Felipe Massa: 1st 1:33.27.515 57 laps chassis 260 Kimi Raikkonen:
3rd + 10.839 57 laps chassis 261 Weather: air temperature
30/28 °C, track temperature 41/38 °C, clear skies.
Second win of the season for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro: after
victory for Kimi Raikkonen in Melbourne, this time at Sakhir
it was Felipe Massa’s turn. This is Felipe’s third
career win and the second for the Scuderia at this circuit.
For Ferrari, this is win number 194 from 744 Grand Prix starts.
Jean Todt:
“Pole position, quickest race lap and the win: a truly
perfect weekend for Felipe. This great result was completed
with a third place for Kimi, which helped bring home some
precious points for the two Championships. It was a very had
and closely contested race, with three teams in the running.
We have made up ground in both classifications and now we
plan to make the most of the weeks leading up to the race
in Barcelona to try and improve every aspect of our package,
from performance to reliability. I want to thank our technical
partners, first and foremost Shell and Bridgestone, which
in its new role as sole tyre supplier, has provided the teams
with two types of tyre that are competitive and consistent
in terms of performance. We can see that the fight for the
titles will be very tight.”
Felipe Massa:
“A great result and it’s nice that we now have
a long break during which I can enjoy thinking about it! After
the first two races did not go so well for me, we put everything
together today. The team did a great job today in terms of
the strategy and the car set-up and everything else. But I
will dedicate this win to my girlfriend Raffaela who has had
to be very patient with me this weekend! But we still need
to work hard to maintain the momentum and the slight advantage
that we have. During the first stint my car was not so well
balanced, I had a bit too much understeer and then the second
was fantastic for me with the tyres working very well. On
the final stint, after my second pit stop, I had the harder
tyres and having looked at the gap, I concentrated on looking
after the car and did not need to increase the gap. I lost
a bit of time to backmarkers too. The championship is very
close now so these are ten very important points!”
Kimi Raikkonen:
“I am happy with these six points, but I can’t
be completely satisfied with this result. At the start, I
think I made a small mistake but I was still in a position
where I could try and overtake Lewis, but in the end I lost
a place to Alonso and spent all of the first stint right behind
him, with no chance of getting by. We managed it at the pit
stop, but to be on the safe side we decided to shorten slightly
the second stint. I managed to close on Lewis but then, with
the different strategy it wasn’t possible to get by
him. In the final stint, I chose to manage the situation given
that I could not get past Lewis. When you come up behind a
car it gets hard to drive and today’s strong wind certainly
didn’t make things any easier. We now have to work on
improving our performance. In the next test in Barcelona,
we have some new parts coming and I hope they will mean we
can make a good step forward.” Luca Baldisserri: “That
was a really great race, especially from Felipe, who has been
very quick all weekend. It was a shame that Kimi’s race
was compromised after he lost a place after the start. He
managed to get by Alonso in the pit stop, but having shortened
the second stint, he was unable to do the same thing to Hamilton,
even though he had completely closed up the gap that had grown
in the previously. The two F2007 worked very well and there
were no technical problems at all. This is result is a reward
for all the hard work from the team here at Sakhir and in
Maranello, after a difficult weekend in Sepang. Now there
is a bit of a break in the calendar and we will have to make
the most of it to improve our performance and up the level
of reliability of the cars. In the Barcelona test prior to
the race at the same track, we will have some new parts, but
we know that our rivals won’t be standing still either.”
Luca Baldisserri:
“That was a really great race, especially from Felipe,
who has been very quick all weekend. It was a shame that Kimi’s
race was compromised after he lost a place after the start.
He managed to get by Alonso in the pit stop, but having shortened
the second stint, he was unable to do the same thing to Hamilton,
even though he had completely closed up the gap that had grown
in the previously. The two F2007 worked very well and there
were no technical problems at all. This is result is a reward
for all the hard work from the team here at Sakhir and in
Maranello, after a difficult weekend in Sepang. Now there
is a bit of a break in the calendar and we will have to make
the most of it to improve our performance and up the level
of reliability of the cars. In the Barcelona test prior to
the race at the same track, we will have some new parts, but
we know that our rivals won’t be standing still either.”
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