Rain was the main feature of this Friday in Hockenheim with the first free practice session run almost entirely on a wet track, while rain threatened for much of the second one, finally arriving a few minutes after the chequered flag.
The two Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro drivers completed a total of 114 laps: 50 for Fernando Alonso, who set the fastest time of the day overall and 64 for Felipe Massa, second fastest this morning in the wet.
“We have seen before on Fridays that we are very competitive and then on Saturday, the Red Bulls are clearly quicker, so we have to take this result with a grain of salt: in order to be in front tomorrow, we will have to do something out of the ordinary,” Alonso said.
“Today’s changeable weather made for a different day to usual, making it even harder to get a true picture of the hierarchy among the teams: you only had to use the softs five minutes later to gain half a second. We concentrated on our work and now we have to analyse the data to be as well prepared as possible for qualifying and the race.”
“In terms of set-up we are on the right road, although we need to improve the balance of the car. With these track conditions, combined with quite low temperatures, it is important to be very careful with the tyres, so as not to ruin them immediately, especially the softs, so as to be able to evaluate their degradation for the race. From what we could see, there are no particular surprises in store.”
“A good start to the weekend here in Hockenheim, but it is still much too soon to say where we are compared to our main opponents,” added Massa, who was third fastest in teh second session. “The changing weather conditions will play an important role and we must be as well prepared as possible to tackle the various possible scenarios: for example if qualifying takes place in the wet and the race in the dry.”
“It will be important to understand the behaviour of the tyres and from what we can gather in similar conditions, the softs are pretty good, while the hards are definitely too hard for this track. The latest updates introduced on the F10 also seem to be working well, confirming the progress made on the car. I would like to take this occasion to congratulate Sauber on its forty years in racing: I started my Formula 1 career with them and I really hope they stay in this sport for a long time.”
“It is always best to start a race weekend in this fashion, but we are perfectly aware that today’s results are even less meaningful than usual,” commented Stefano Domenicali. “Furthermore, at the last two races, we have seen our drivers in the top places on Friday afternoon and everyone knows how it ended up…”
“But superstition apart, we wanted to get through our planned programme and we did so, despite the weather which was very changeable. Now we have to work towards qualifying, which I expect to be very closely contested and then the race. From what we have seen so far, the Red Bull is stll the quickest car, but we are competitive."
;)
