 Victory for Felipe Massa at the end of a
perfect weekend for the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro driver, who led from
pole and was never headed apart from during the run of pit stops to take
his fourth victory of the season, the ninth of his career. However, it
was a bitter sweet day for the Scuderia, as there were two negative
points, with Kimi Raikkonen's race ending in a huge cloud of white smoke
that saw him park his F2008 alongside the main straight with a handful
of laps remaining. In addition, during the Finn's second pit stop, a
member of the pit crew was knocked to the ground as Kimi tried to drive
off while the fuel line was still attached. Fortunately, he was not
seriously hurt.
In terms of the championships, Felipe now moves up to second place, six
points off Lewis Hamilton who brought his McLaren-Mercedes home in
second place. Robert Kubica joined these two on the podium, third for
BMW-Sauber. Ferrari heads the Constructors' classification, although its
lead over the Anglo-German squad has dropped from eleven to eight
points.
The first ever Formula 1 race at this interesting new Valencia street
circuit got underway with track temperatures nudging the mid 40s and the
air a hot and sticky 29. The two F2008s lined up with Felipe Massa
having an unimpeded view of the track from pole, while Kimi Raikkonen's
line of site had just the McLaren-Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton, both these
men on the dirty side of the 5.440 km track. Barrichello in the Honda
and Sutil in the Force India started from pit lane and all cars, except
Rosberg in the Williams, were on the harder of the two Bridgestone
tyres.
At the start, Felipe maintained his lead, but Kimi was passed by the
clean side starting Kovalainen thus dropping to fifth. Nakajima and
Alonso collided and to the dismay of the Spanish crowd, the two times
world champion was in the garage for a replacement rear wing, but the
damage was too bad and the local hero was out of his home race. The
Japanese driver got a new nose and continued. After three laps, Felipe
had a lead of 1.8 over Hamilton, while Kimi was 1.1 behind Kovalainen.
After five laps, the order was Felipe, Hamilton, Kubica, Kovalainen,
Kimi, Vettel, Trulli, Rosberg, Heidfeld, Glock, Bourdais, Webber,
Button, Fisichella, Sutil, Coulthard, Piquet, Barrichello and Nakajima
nineteenth and last. On lap 9, Felipe dipped under the 1.40 barrier to
record another fastest race lap and extend his lead to 3.6s. Further
down the order Coulthard clipped Sutil as the Red Bull tried to pass the
Force India: the Scotsman was spun round but continued.
 Felipe was the first driver to make a pit stop (9.1) fitting another set
of the harder tyres, coming back on track in fourth place just ahead of
his Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro team-mate, so Hamilton now led Kubica by
13.1 seconds. The Englishman came in on lap 16 (8.9) and Vettel came in
from sixth. When Kubica refuelled Kovalainen, yet to pit was the new
leader in the McLaren, ahead of Felipe and Hamilton, with Trulli pitting
from fourth on lap 19, (8.8.) After Kimi stopped he dropped to ninth,
although Heidfeld and Glock ahead of him had yet to pit. Kovalainen came
in on lap 20, so that Felipe was now back in the lead, heading Hamilton
by 3.5 seconds. Kimi was up to sixth on lap 22, when Heidfeld pitted. At
just over the half distance on lap 29, Felipe had extended his lead over
Hamilton to 7.8 seconds, with Kubica a further 16 seconds behind.
Kovalainen was fourth, Glock had yet to pit in fifth and Kimi sixth,
34.2 seconds behind his team-mate. The Toyota man finally came in next
time round, leaving Kimi to chase a 5.4 gap to fourth placed Kovalainen.
By lap 35, he had reduced his deficit to 2.9.
Felipe made his second and final 8.5 second stop on lap 37, but there
was a heart stopping moment as Sutil, also in pit lane in the Force
India nearly collided with the Ferrari as they exited pit lane. The
Brazilian would now tackle the final twenty laps on the softer tyres.
The gap between the two Finns had come down to 2.1. At the front,
Hamilton now led Massa by 13.4, as the Race Director announced that
Felipe was being investigated for "unsafe release from pit." Lap 39 saw
Hamilton make his final stop, putting Felipe back in the lead, as Kimi
had closed to within 1.3 of his fellow countryman, in their battle for
third, as Kubica had pitted the BMW for his second refuelling.
Kovalainen and Kimi came down pit lane nose to tail on lap 43 and for a
moment it looked as though Kimi would get out first, but he attempted to
pull away while the fuel nozzle was still attached, before being
released and his right rear wheel hit a member of the pit crew in the
back. Kimi now dropped to sixth behind Trulli. But his race ended in a
huge cloud of white smoke, as he was forced to park his car at the side
of the main straight.
 However, out in front, Felipe continued on his majestic way to become
the first winner at this track, finishing 5.6 seconds ahead of Hamilton,
with Kubica taking the third spot on the podium. The rest of the points
went to Kovalainen in fourth, followed by Trulli, Vettel, Glock and
Rosberg.Stefano
Domenicali: "Felipe has had an extraordinary
weekend. Yesterday he was very quick in qualifying and today he drove in
impeccable style, without putting a foot wrong to take what was a very
well deserved win after the disappointment of Budapest. I want to
compliment him and the whole team who have worked so hard in preparing
for this event. Unfortunately, once again, we have suffered with a
reliability problem, this time on Kimi's car, which lost us precious
points. Now we have to find out what happened in yet another engine
failure and then decide how to react. Clearly what happened is serious
and we will have to do all in our power to make up for the ground we
have lost through reliability problems in the coming races. Now we must
continue to push to the maximum to develop the car and improve
reliability in order to be as well prepared as possible for the
forthcoming races. We still have two test sessions, at Monza and then
Jerez and a lot of hard days work in the factory. Finally, I want to say
a few words about Piero Timpini, our mechanic unfortunately injured in
Kimi's second pit stop: his first words were to say sorry, as though the
incident was his fault: it is thanks to the passion, dedication and
professionalism, that these guys show on a daily basis for Ferrari how
special is our team."
Felipe Massa: "It's fantastic having won this race, especially
after the disappointment of Budapest. The team did an amazing job in
preparing for this Grand Prix and the benefits of that could be seen
right from the very first day. Yesterday, I got pole and today the win,
with the race fastest lap as the icing on the cake. You cannot ask for
more especially at my one hundredth grand prix with every single one of
them powered by a Ferrari engine. I got a good start and I pushed to the
maximum right from the early laps. In the second part of the race, the
car was exceptional, but also in the final stint, when I had the softer
tyres, I could do the lap times easily. This is an important moment in
my career and I must continue to work in this way. I am sorry for what
happened to Kimi: we have to look very carefully at our reliability. I
am confident the team knows which countermeasures to take to react to
this issue, as it has always done in the past."
Kimi Raikkonen: "Not much to say after a day like this. It was
definitely not the weekend I was hoping for but I do not believe that,
despite this negative result, I am now out of the running for the title.
There are still six races to go and sixty points up for grabs. We have
seen that the situation change really quickly, even if I realize things
are now more complicated. Today, I lost a place at the start and I was
stuck in traffic for all of the first stint. Then, when I had a clear
track ahead of me, I was able to push and was doing good lap times. At
the second pit stop, I made a mistake and left before I should have
done. Fortunately, Pietro (Timpini) is not too badly hurt. I wish him
all the best and hope he gets better soon. In any case, it would not
have changed anything as then the engine broke. Now we must concentrate
on preparing for the next rounds and on improving our qualifying
performance."
Luca Baldisserri: "A great performance from Felipe all weekend
long. He was fantastic and deserves all our praise. Unfortunately, yet
again, we were not reliable, both from a technical point of view and in
how we operated on the track, given what happened during Raikkonen's pit
stop and then the failure of his engine, which initial investigations
seem to point at a similar failure to the one Felipe experienced in
Hungary. Fortunately, Pietro Timpini, the mechanic operating the
refueling, injured at Kimi's second stop, got away with just a small
fracture to the left foot and it is not particularly serious. Today we
have seen two sides of the coin. We have a great potential, from both
the team and the car, capable of putting us in front of everyone else,
but if not all elements are operating at their optimum, then we are
throwing away precious points that could cost us dear. We must work to
remedy these problems and that's what we will do starting in the days
that follow." Source
- Ferrari Media |
