Fernando Alonso is still confident of Ferrari’s chances in tomorrow’s Chinese Grand Prix despite both cars qualifying third and fifth
The double world champion comfortably set the fastest time in FP3 ahead of teammate Felipe Massa, who recorded the quickest lap of FP2 on Friday. The team’s pace seemed to fade slightly during Saturday’s qualifying session with Alonso and Massa dropping to third and fifth, despite many considering Ferrari to be the favourites for pole.
However, Alonso refused to be downbeat following qualifying and believes Ferrari’s traditionally strong Sunday pace will allow both cars to fight for the podium come the race.
"I think the race pace is normally better so I don't see any change here compared to any other race," Alonso said.
"I expect tomorrow to have a good position in the race fighting for the podium and hopefully for the win.
“The car felt competitive from Friday, this morning we made some changes and the car was responding well,” he continued.
“I think we have a good setup for the race as well - which is always more important than qualifying - and I think tomorrow if everything goes well I think we should be able to fight for the podium and hopefully with both cars, so this is good news for the team.”
Despite his optimism, the Spaniard expects strategy and Kimi Raikkonen’s Lotus – a car notoriously soft on its tires – to be decisive factors in the outcome of tomorrow’s race.
“Tomorrow we know the tires are going to be the key factor,” he said. “Pitting first is obviously going to be an advantage in terms of pace but it's going to be a disadvantage in terms of traffic.
You'll be in the middle of many cars that will probably be going longer; cars that are starting in 11th will go longer with the prime, also people like [Sebastian] Vettel and [Jenson] Button will be longer with the prime so it's something that we need to be very flexible in the strategy and very clever and hopefully take the best chance.
I think especially with Kimi we will have a strong opponent because normally Lotus and him is one of the best at taking care of the tires.”
The double world champion comfortably set the fastest time in FP3 ahead of teammate Felipe Massa, who recorded the quickest lap of FP2 on Friday. The team’s pace seemed to fade slightly during Saturday’s qualifying session with Alonso and Massa dropping to third and fifth, despite many considering Ferrari to be the favourites for pole.
However, Alonso refused to be downbeat following qualifying and believes Ferrari’s traditionally strong Sunday pace will allow both cars to fight for the podium come the race.
"I think the race pace is normally better so I don't see any change here compared to any other race," Alonso said.
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| Fernando Alonso, Ferrari F138 (Photo: WRi2) |
"I expect tomorrow to have a good position in the race fighting for the podium and hopefully for the win.
“The car felt competitive from Friday, this morning we made some changes and the car was responding well,” he continued.
“I think we have a good setup for the race as well - which is always more important than qualifying - and I think tomorrow if everything goes well I think we should be able to fight for the podium and hopefully with both cars, so this is good news for the team.”
Despite his optimism, the Spaniard expects strategy and Kimi Raikkonen’s Lotus – a car notoriously soft on its tires – to be decisive factors in the outcome of tomorrow’s race.
“Tomorrow we know the tires are going to be the key factor,” he said. “Pitting first is obviously going to be an advantage in terms of pace but it's going to be a disadvantage in terms of traffic.
You'll be in the middle of many cars that will probably be going longer; cars that are starting in 11th will go longer with the prime, also people like [Sebastian] Vettel and [Jenson] Button will be longer with the prime so it's something that we need to be very flexible in the strategy and very clever and hopefully take the best chance.
I think especially with Kimi we will have a strong opponent because normally Lotus and him is one of the best at taking care of the tires.”