Advanced Search

The story appears on

Page B15

April 3, 2010

GET this page in PDF

Free for subscribers

View shopping cart

Related News

Home » Sports » Motor Racing

Ferrari shrugs off slow times

Source: Agencies | April 3, 2010, Saturday | Print Edition

CHAMPIONSHIP leader Fernando Alonso played down Ferrari's relatively slow performance in the first two practice sessions for the Malaysian Grand Prix yesterday.

McLaren's Lewis Hamilton topped the timesheets in both morning and afternoon sessions, while Alonso and his teammate Felipe Massa struggled in the mid-division almost a second behind the pace set by the British 2008 world champion.

"It's pointless to look for any significance in Friday's classification. I'm seventh but I could just as well have been second or last and it would not have changed anything," Alonso told reporters.

The Spaniard, who won the season-opening race on his Ferrari debut in Bahrain and finished fourth in Melbourne last week, shrugged off yesterday's sluggish display as nothing more than a typical practice session. "It all depends on the difference between the programs adopted by the teams," he said.

"From our side, we are reasonably happy with what we have done and first impressions would be that there is no reason to expect a different picture to the one in Bahrain and Melbourne.

"In the space of four days (since the Australian Grand Prix), nothing much is likely to have changed."

Alonso felt the real test would come during today's qualifying and the race itself a day later and he highlighted a number of factors that would determine the winner.

"It will not be easy but there is no need to be pessimistic," he said. "The temperature of the engines, the brakes, tires and last but not least the drivers will be of the utmost importance. We will have to keep them all under control."

Standings

Massa lies second in the standings after finishing second in Bahrain and third in Melbourne. The Brazilian was further off the pace than Alonso yesterday but echoed his teammate's sentiments ahead of qualifying.

"What is clear is that Red Bull and McLaren seem to be going very well. Let's wait and see what we can do in qualifying and especially in the race," he said.

"The car handles reasonably well, we just need to work a bit more to improve our outright performance but we don't have problems in any particular area." Hamilton's time of one minute, 34.175 seconds in the second session put him ahead of Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel and Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg.

Mark Webber's Red Bull had an engine failure during the second session, coasting to a stop in a gravel trap. That extended Red Bull's run of mechanical problems this season after Vettel was struck by unusual reliability issues while leading both the Bahrain and Australian GPs.
Motor Racing



 

Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

沪公网安备 31010602000204号

Email this to your friend