Grand Prix – Barcelona, 26th April 2008
Qualifying session
Session Driver Pos. Time Laps Driver Pos. Time Laps
Q1 RAI 1st 1.20.701 8 MAS 12th 1.21.528 4
Q2 MAS 1st 1.20.584 6 RAI 3rd 1.20.784 3
Q3 RAI 1st 1.21.813 6 MAS 3rd 1.22.058 6
Chassis: F. Massa 267, K. Raikkonen 270
Weather: air temperature 27/28 °C, track temperature 39/41
°C, sunny.
Second pole position of the season for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro,
the first courtesy of Kimi Raikkonen. For the Finn, this was
his fifteenth career pole, the second at this track, while
the Scuderia’s total now moves up to 197, 13 of which
were obtained at this Grand Prix. “Obviously we are
pleased with the result of today’s qualifying, commented
Stefano Domenicali. “We were expecting a very close
fight and that’s what we got, to the extent that the
top five are all within less than three tenths of a second
of one another. This also shows we are up against some very
strong opponents and we will have to do everything perfectly
if we want to get a good result. All the signs point to this
but that’s never enough: you also need reliability,
a team and the drivers concentrating fully and a good strategy.”
Kimi Raikkonen: “I’ve been chasing
pole for a while now, but for one reason or another, it always
escaped me. But today I got it. There is no better place to
start so I will try and make the most of that tomorrow. It
will be important to get off the line well, getting through
the first corner without any problems. Then it will be down
to exploiting the car’s potential and that is definitely
good. The race is what matters and tomorrow I want to bring
home a nice result. So maybe it was not too bad doing so few
laps in the dry in last week’s test, as we were able
to work on set-up with a different approach. On my first run
in Q3, I lost a bit of grip in the final sector, but then
on the second set of tyres everything went well. The perfect
lap? You can always do better.”
Felipe Massa: “I got a good lap with
my first set of tyres in Q3, but that was not the case on
my second, especially in the final sector of the track and
that meant I could not improve on my time. When qualifying
is as close as this it only takes the smallest of things to
lose or gain a few places. I think we will be very competitive
tomorrow, but we can expect a tough race. Anything can happen
and we will have to give it our best shot to bring home the
best result possible. We can count on a car that is good over
a long run, which has been the case from last week’s
test up to and including yesterday.”
Luca Baldisserri: “This was an incredibly
close fight. Once again it demonstrated that you have to pay
close attention to the smallest detail if you aspire to the
top places, especially in qualifying. From what we have seen,
for the race, we can run at a good pace over a distance and
we will try and make the most of our grid positions. The crucial
elements will be the same as ever: the start, the strategy,
reliability and tyre performance. Our mood of cautious optimism
from yesterday remains the same today.”
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