Grand Prix – Barcelona, 25th April 2008
Free practice – First session
Driver Pos. Time Laps Chassis
K. Raikkonen 1st 1.20.649 17 270
F. Massa 2nd 1.20.699 9 267
Weather: air temperature 28/30 °C, track temperature 35/39
°C, sunny.
Free Practice – Second session
Driver Pos. Time Laps Chassis
K. Raikkonen 1st 1.21.935 38 270
F. Massa 5th 1.22.229 32 267
Weather: air temperature 25/26 °C, track temperature 36
°C, sunny.
“Today’s two sessions were slightly different
to usual for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro, given that last week
it took part in a four day long test session at this track.
This meant today’s program revolved around confirming
the ideas on set-up developed from the test and on a comparison
of the two types of tyre Bridgestone has brought here, in
terms of their performance over a single lap and on a long
run. “All in all, we can be satisfied with the way these
three hours of free practice have gone,” commented Scuderia
Ferrari Team Principal Stefano Domenicali. “We got through
our planned work load without any technical problems. We can
be cautiously confident about the rest of the weekend, well
aware that we are up against some stiff opposition.”
Kimi Raikkonen: “I am pleased with
this first day of testing. We did the work we needed to do
and had no problems, this being probably the most positive
thing. The balance of the car is good, even if there is always
room to improve and its handling was also good on both types
of tyre. As usual on Friday, it is hard to judge where we
are up against our rivals and I think we can expect a very
close fight. The new nose? We wouldn’t use it if it
didn’t give us a little something extra!”
Felipe Massa: “This was a good day.
From what we have seen, I think we will be competitive this
weekend and we are working in the right direction. Track conditions
will improve over the next couple of days. Today, it was a
bit on the limit and it was easy to make mistakes. In fact,
when I spun this morning, I flat spotted the left rear tyre
and that’s why I didn’t do many laps in the first
session, as it wasn’t worth using a new set of tyres.
I could have posted a quicker time in the afternoon, but I
had some traffic on my first flying lap on soft tyres. It’s
my birthday today and I would love to give myself a nice present
on Sunday.”
Luca Baldisserri: “We had a good starting
point thanks to the work carried out here last week, so we
worked mainly on confirming the results from that test. We
had no technical problems, which meant we got through all
our programme. It is always difficult to make predictions
based on what you can see on a Friday, but I think we can
be reasonably optimistic about the rest of the weekend.”
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