Malaysian Grand Prix – Sepang 8th April 2007
Kimi Raikkonen: 3rd +18.339 56 laps chassis 261
Felipe Massa: 5th +36.705 56 laps chassis 260
Weather: air temperature 36/35 °C, track temperature 53/50
°C, dry track, clear skies
Jean Todt: “This is definitely a disappointing
result. After a great qualifying yesterday, with Felipe onpole
and Kimi third, we certainly expected better. Unfortunately,
we have had to settle for a third and afifth place from Kimi
and Felipe respectively. The crucial points for getting a
race win are grid position,the start, the strategy, reliability
and obviously, the performance of the cars. Today, we did
not manage agood start with Felipe, who later, in an effort
to catch up, went off trackand dropped to fifth place, thuscompromising
his race. Kimi was also overtaken at the start and from then
on was unable to do anythingabout it. In the end, we got both
cars home but the ten points we got are definitely cause for
satisfaction.We know we are up against a very strong and battle
ready opponent who did a better job than us today.Fortunately,
in just one week’s time we get the chance to make up
for it at Sakhir. We will do all we canthere to get the best
possible result.”
Kimi Raikkonen: “A day of mixed feelings.
On the one hand I am happy to have picked up six points, onthe
other, I am disappointed that the race did not live up to
my expectations. This weekend we had tomake some compromises
on the car and that meant we were unable to exploit its full
potential. Todaywe lacked a bit of speed when up against our
main rivals. I repeat that I’m a bit disappointed but
I amalso aware this is just the beginning of the season and
that these points will definitely be important forthe championship
as it evolves. The team did a good job, given all the uncertainties
we had. We have totry and improve to get one hundred percent
out of all the elements of the package. The first corner?Fernando
and Lewis were just better than us.”
Felipe Massa: “It was a very tough
race in which we suffered a lot. It was almost impossible
to overtake.I tried to attack Lewis, but I made a mistake
and ended up off the track. I cannot blame myself for tryingand
next time things will go better. The race we did notgo the
way we had expected and our pace wasslower than we had expected.
Now, we have to find out why and work to improve the situation
in thecoming races. But it was still important to have got
the car to the flag as it is vital to always score points.”
Luca Baldisserri: “There is no point
in denying that we are disappointed. Our performance level
wasdefinitely lower than expected and lower than what we had
seen in testing last week as well as on Fridayand Saturday.
We will have to take a very close look at what happened. Of
course the start played a bigpart in the way the race evolved.
Felipe did not make the most of pole and then he was unlucky
whentrying to pass Hamilton, going off the track, but more
critically, losing vital position. The fact that theperformance
gap between the cars in the race was not as great as we had
expected made the situationmore complicated, also when taking
into account our strategies. Both Kimi and Felipe spent a
lot of timein traffic and were thus unable to get the most
out of their cars. But we can be pleased about gettingboth
cars to the finish, given the uncertainties the day before.
But we now have to work on ensuring thatall elements of the
package are operating at their maximum.”
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