Ferrari can be competitive this weekend – Fernando Alonso
Fernando Alonso is confident that his team will be competitive at the Marina Bay Circuit in Singapore this weekend despite his silly mistake during the second practice session on Friday.
The Red Bulls dominated the session as Sebastian Vettel topped the timesheets followed by teammate Mark Webber. However, the McLarens and Ferraris were not looking too bad either as Jenson finished behind the Red Bulls followed by Fernando Alonso and Lewis
Hamilton in 4th and 5th places respectively. The Spaniard was on a hot lap and it seemed that he would beat Vettel’s fastest time of the session but a silly mistake on the exit at turn 17 caused him to run wide into turn 18, costing him
some valuable time. Fernando tried running the car again but his Ferrari engine stalled, forcing him to miss the final part of the session and his Ferrari was not able to post a representative time on the soft compound tyres.
The two-time world champion explained that he broke a bit late at turn 18 and ended up in the escape road.
“I selected reverse, but when I then selected first gear to get going again, the car stopped. It's a shame, because I lost the final twenty minutes of the session, the part when I was due to run with a heavy fuel load,” he said.
According to Ferrari’s engineers, the problem was that an experimental part of the gearbox broke. It was not a big deal though since such things happen on a Friday in the Formula 1 as the teams are trying some new things, even some aimed for the next season.
Alonso added that his Ferrari was running quick before the mistake and there is still time at Saturday’s practice session where the team can make some set-up choices such as whether to run the F-duct or not.
He stated that his individual track times are not too bad and he believes that according to his time, Ferrari will be competitive when compared to their rivals.
“We tried the car with and without the blown rear wing and for me, the first option seems to be the best, but we must study the data carefully before taking a definite decision. The hard tyres proved to be consistent and the soft tyres give more grip than
expected,” he said.
Fernando did not do a lot of running due to track conditions, as it was not dry enough for slick tyres while the intermediates would have been destroyed in no time.
The Spaniard’s teammate Felipe Massa on the other hand struggled to get his Ferrari up to the pace at the Marina Bay and finished seventh as a result by the end of the session. He is still confident though as he thinks his car is not that bad and his team
will be a challenge for the Red Bulls and McLarens.
“I am not particularly pleased with the balance of the car and that is another reason why we spent a lot of time on track in the first session, even when track conditions were not ideal - especially on the soft tyres, I had a bit too much over steer”, said
Felipe.
Massa believes that the team still has a lot of work to do on the car but they will be able to achieve their goals before the qualifying session on Saturday.
The qualifying session on Saturday will be important for the drivers because overtaking might not be that easy rain is expected on Sunday. All five competitors for the drivers’ title finished at the top 5 positions on Friday. However, these times will be
pointless if the conditions change during the qualifying session as rain is expected to hit the track. This will be a tough and entertaining race as Formula 1 might witness the first wet race on a floodlit track in the history of the sport.
Tags: