Turkish Grand Prix – Istanbul, Qualifying session
Session Driver Pos. Time Laps Driver Pos. Time Laps
Q1 RAI 1st 1.27.294 4 MAS 3rd 1.27.488 4
Q2 RAI 2nd 1.26.902 3 MAS 4th 1.27.039 3
Q3 MAS 1st 1.27.329 11 RAI 3rd 1.27.546 11
Chassis: F. Massa 263, K. Raikkonen 262
Weather: air temperature 36/35 °C, track temperature 48
°C, clear skies.
Seventh pole for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro out of twelve
qualifying sessions held to date in this championship and
for the fifth time, courtesy of Felipe Massa. This is the
second time that a Ferrari driver will start the Turkish Grand
Prix from pole position, the first one also set by Felipe
for whom this is the eighth pole of his career. The Scuderia
has thus taken its total number of poles to 193. Jean Todt:
“This was a really closely contested qualifying, with
Felipe delivering us our seventh pole of the season, while
Kimi took third place. It’s true that this is only the
first small step in the evolution of the race weekend, but
from what we have seen this year, its value should not be
underestimated. Tomorrow we can expect a very tough race on
a circuit that is particularly demanding on the driver from
a physical point of view: reliability, team work, strategy
and tyre performance will, as usual, be the vital parameters
to take into consideration.”
Felipe Massa: “Sensational! After
a nightmare of a weekend in Budapest I am very happy to have
taken pole this afternoon. It was a very hard fight, right
down to the nearest thousandth of a second. In the first two
qualifying sessions I was not perfect, but I gave it my best
shot in Q3, when the car was really well balanced. I am optimistic,
because I think we are very competitive in race trim. The
final corners on this track are very important because it
is easy to lose a lot of time in a short distance. In Q3,
I tried not to be too aggressive. I hope I get a good start
and that our strategy turns out to be the right one. It would
be great to repeat last year’s result.”
Kimi Raikkonen: “Of course I would
have preferred to have started from pole position, but it
is better to be third and start on the clean side of the track,
than to be second. In Q1 and Q2, the car was well balanced,
but that was not the case in Q3, when I took on my fuel load
for the first part of the race. I made a few small mistakes
in the final two corners, which probably cost me pole. We
have a very strong car in race trim, so there is every chance
of getting a good result.”
Luca Baldisserri: “A very exciting
qualifying! We missed out on an all-red front row by a whisker,
but both our drivers are in very good positions on the starting
grid. It will be a very tough race in which strategy, reliability
and consistency in performance from both types of tyre will
be crucial, as is always the case in fact. Yesterday, we showed
we were competitive over a distance, but that also appeared
to be the case for our main rivals. We will have to do everything
perfectly if we want our result to match our expectations,
which are to bring home the best result possible.”
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