Fernando Alonso hoping for a rainy Japanese Grand Prix
Fernando Alonso was not able to beat the Red Bulls at the practice session this Friday as both of the Red Bulls dominated the entire session by a long shot. However, Fernando is expecting a qualifying “lottery” ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix as the experts
have forecasted a rainy qualifying session at Suzuka.
Almost 50mm of rain is expected to hit the track and there were rumours that the qualifying session could be postponed. Alonso finished as the fourth fastest behind Robert Kubica in the Renault. He was way off the pace of the two Red Bulls and said that
the heavy rain should shift the focus from sheer speed to adopting a low risk strategy.
“In theory, Red Bull look unbeatable here, as they always have done, except in Monza and also there were various races where come Sunday, they were beaten, so again that's a reason to wait before drawing any conclusions”, he said.
He is aware that the team did not put together a perfect lap but there is still a lot of room for improvement. Ferrari has to analyse the data they obtained from the practice sessions and come up with the best possible strategy they can for the race. The
team will concentrate on avoiding any mistakes if the rain hits the track tomorrow as even a minor mistake can cost the team the race in wet conditions.
“Then it will be down to luck, as to who finds themselves in the right place at the right time on the right tyre. The aim in qualifying is to be in the top five, then we can see how things go in the race,” he added.
Fernando believes that the Friday test session times are not that important and that it is still not quite clear which team has the best car for Suzuka.
The Spaniard’s statement is correct in many ways, as it has happened many times before that the team that scores the best time at Friday usually struggled for the rest of the weekend. These times are not so important in that respect however, one can evaluate
the progress a team is making during these sessions. The performance of each team varies from track to track as well and if we look at McLaren, McLaren was the strongest team at Spa and Monza but they were the worst of the top 3 at Budapest and Singapore.
It is any team’s game right now as the real game will begin tomorrow when the teams perform at the final practice session.
The championship is on a brink of its climax as the top five drivers have just 4 races left in this year’s championship. Fernando Alonso has the strongest momentum currently as he won 2 races consecutively at Monza and Singapore and is just 11 points short
of the leader Mark Webber.
Felipe Massa was quite surprised by Red Bull’s dominance and thinks that Ferrari should have been able to take advantage of any opportunity that arises during the qualifying session at Suzuka.
Felipe thinks that Red Bull would be very strong and he did not expect such dominance from the team.
“It's likely we will have a wet qualifying tomorrow, so anything could happen: we must try and be ready to make the most of whatever situation presents it. The aim is still the same, whether the track is dry or if it rains, which means to qualify as well
as possible”, he said.
Suzuka is a pretty difficult track for the tyres due to its high speed corners. Therefore, managing the tyres properly will be the key to the win at Suzuka. Ferrari is expected to use the blown rear wing on this track and it will definitely give an advantage
to the car’s performance. The team is still hoping to improve the handling of their car but it will be a tough race for them in terms of performance.
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