Qualifying - Austrian GP report: Ferrari

Qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix produced a surprising front row, while the Scuderia Ferrari drivers will be starting from the second and fourth rows. Fernando Alonso was fourth fastest in 1.09.285, equaling his best result of the season in Malaysia. Kimi Raikkonen will start from eighth, with a time of 1.10.795.

Both men had a relatively smooth passage into Q2, but from then on life got harder. Fernando was on a perfect lap but made a mistake at the end of the final corner, going off on the grass, which meant he had to try again. Kimi pushed hard all the way to squeeze through in last place for the top ten shoot-out.

The final stages were action packed. Fernando posted a strong 1.09.285, while Williams locked out the front row with Felipe Massa taking his first pole since Brazil 2008 in 1.08.759 and Valtteri Bottas doing a 1.08.846. In third was championship leader Nico Rosberg in 1.08.944, who was unable to improve as he came up behind team-mate Lewis Hamilton who had spun at Turn 2. Kimi never got a clean lap and could do no better than eighth.

Fernando Alonso

“I have mixed feelings after this qualifying, because on the one hand, this is the best result since early in the season, but it’s also true that the session was very unusual and it’s highly likely that the final order does not reflect the true hierarchy down the field. In Q2, I made a mistake at the final corner, which meant I had to try another run and in Q3, I went long in turn 3. But fourth place makes up for the disappointment of not having done a perfect lap and it should make us proud of what we have accomplished so far, because the updates we started bringing since Canada seem to indicate we are on the right road. With some faster cars behind us, we can expect a difficult race, in which defending will be as important as attacking. Now we must try and work out how to make the most of this advantage for as long as possible in terms of strategy and to have a solid race.”

Kimi Raikkonen

“In these two days I have found it more difficult to put together a good lap and again today in qualifying things did not go well. In Q3, I went out for just a single run on the Supersofts, but the mistakes made at the first corner affected my lap times. On my last run I locked the wheels, damaging the left front tyre, but at that point, I decided to keep on trying to improve. Even if eighth place is not a disaster, I am disappointed because we were quicker than that today, but I was never able to be consistent in the three sectors. Race pace is good and even if I am finding it a bit hard to get the tyres up to temperature, I will try my best tomorrow.”

Pat Fry

“If you look at the results of qualifying since the start of the year, today’s is definitely unusual, but putting all other considerations aside, all my congratulations go to Felipe, because I think he really deserved pole position. Here in Spielberg, your overall power counts for a lot and so starting from the second row must be seen as a good result. It’s very easy to make mistakes here, especially in the first corner and the last two and, as it’s a very short track, traffic can also create problems. Fernando got the most out of the car and tomorrow with him we will work in two directions, attacking those in front while defending from those behind such as Hamilton. Unfortunately, Kimi didn’t get a clean lap, because of a mistake at the first corner and now we will work on improving his package so he can have greater confidence in the car, because his qualities are out of question. The race pace we had on Friday is encouraging, equal to that of the Williams and Red Bull and so we can expect the race to be as tight as qualifying.”