Kimi Raikkonen managed to take pole position for tomorrow's race at the Nurburgring after this afteroon's qualifying session was stopped following Lewis Hamilton's crash. Fernando Alonso was second, three tenths behind but just ahead of Felipe Massa in the second Ferrari
Ferrari had a very productive day on Friday at Silverstone. Kimi Raikkonen finished half a second clear of his teammate Felipe Massa. Ralf Schumacher showed impressive pace, coming hoe in third. However, Toyota fans should be cautious as Toro Rosso did the same on Friday in France, only to end up towards the end of the grid in qualifying. Hamilton managed fourth fastest time.
Ferrari may have been beaten to the head of the timesheets this morning, but this afternoon at a blustery Silverstone circuit Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa dominated the second 90-minute practice session.
Raikkonen led the way with a best lap of 1:20.639s, just under half a second clear of Massa. Both drivers had small issues, with Raikkonen in particular understeering off at Copse twice as he put in long runs on worn tyres. Massa also had a grassy moment as he took too much kerbing at Becketts and this put him offline into Chapel. Like Raikkonen, it was fairly insignificant and between them they put in a good number of laps and enjoy a big advantage over their main rival.
Ralf Schumacher was an impressive third fastest in his Toyota with an identical lap time to Lewis Hamilton in the leading McLaren Mercedes. Schumacher was on the pace at the very start of the session and seemed to hit problems with his TF107 after half an hour. After some time out of the car, the German was able to resume and finish his programme.
Hamilton, fastest this morning, will have to be content with fourth overall in his MP4-22, with team-mate Fernando Alonso close behind in sixth position - behind the second Toyota of Jarno Trulli.
Nico Rosberg and Alex Wurz recorded the seventh and eighth fastest times respectively for the Williams Toyota team ahead of Mark Webber in his newly liveried Red Bull Renault.
David Coulthard, new contract in pocket, was 14th fastest in the sister RB3.
Anthony Davidson traditionally runs well in Friday practice and today was no exception as he set the tenth best time in his Super Aguri Honda ahead of Renault’s Heikki Kovalainen and Giancarlo Fisichella.
BMW Sauber did not show much pace today but not a great deal should be read into that with Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld 13th and 15th. Takuma Sato set the 16th best time in the second Super Aguri ahead of Rubens Barrichello in the Honda. Christian Klien was a surprise call up today as Jenson Button opted to sit out the session due to some back pain. The Honda test driver did a solid job lapping close to the pace of Barrichello as he claimed the 18th best time.
Scott Speed and Tonio Liuzzi proved closely matched at Toro Rosso as they lapped just a fraction ahead of Christijan Albers in the leading Spyker. Adrian Sutil brought up the bottom of the timesheets as his eventful session ended in the wall at Copse following a high speed spin.
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Kimi Raikkonen stole victory from Felipe Massa in the French Grand Prix to lead home a dominant Ferrari one-two ahead of Lewis Hamilton. Raikkonen's second win of the season brings him back into championship contention. Fernando Alonso meanwhile finished seventh, despite pulling off a sequence of thrilling overtaking moves.
Ferrari dominated the start with Massa getting away cleanly in the lead and Raikkonen stealing second place from Lewis Hamilton. Robert Kubica kept fourth ahead of the two Renaults of Fisichella. At the back of the field Davidson clipped Liuzzi sending the pair spinning out of the race at the first corner.
There was action down at the Adelaide hairpin where Trulli drove into the back of Heikki Kovalainen, ending the Toyota driver's race. Kovalainen pitted and resumed at the back of the field. Alonso meanwhile was on a charge and up to eighth - a lap later he muscled past Rosberg for seventh.
Meanwhile at the front Massa was stretching his lead over Raikkonen - on lap seven the difference was three seconds, with Hamilton a further 1.5s adrift. The Ferraris maintained their lead and Alonso remained stuck behind Heidfeld until lap 16 when McLaren pitted both its drivers. Race leader Massa went three laps further before refuelling.
Kimi Raikkonen went three laps further before making his first stop and rejoined just behind his team mate. Alonso meanwhile made light work of former team mate Giancarlo Fisichella, passing him for seventh down the inside of the Adelaide hairpin.
As the Ferrari's extended their lead over Hamilton to ten seconds, Alonso was back to chasing the tail of Heidfeld's BMW. It took him some time, but on lap 33 Alonso decided enough was enough and charged through at the blind, high-speed final chicane to take fifth place.
Hamilton made his second pit stop on lap 37, rejoining alongside Robert Kubica through the high-speed Estoril corner. The Pole kept his nose ahead but Hamilton barged past in the Adelaide hairpin to retake third place. During all the action, Alonso made his second pit stop, amid speculation McLaren may have switched him from a three-stop to a two-stop strategy.
Ferrari looked unbeatable as Massa made his second pit stop on lap 43 and fuelled for the rest of the race. Kimi Raikkonen stayed out two laps further and made it count as he rejoined the race comfortably ahead of his team mate to take the lead and final sprint down to the chequered flag.
Alonso found himself back in seventh, chasing the tail of Fisichella for the second time this afternoon but could do nothing to get past and settled for seventh.
Raikkonen swooped past the chequered flag to take his second win of the season, the eleventh of his F1 career and put himself back in contention for the drivers' championship. Felipe Massa claimed eight points for second place, although he really should have won the race while Hamilton scored yet another podium in third.
Robert Kubica proved he had lost none of his competitiveness after the Canadian Grand Prix crash to take fourth place ahead of the second BMW Sauber of Nick Heidfeld. Fisichella took sixth place for Renault ahead of Alonso and Jenson Button in eighth, scoring Honda's first point of the season.
Felipe Massa muscled his Ferrari into pole position for tomorrow's French Grand Prix, beating Lewis Hamilton by just 0.070s in a very close fought qualifying session at Magny Cours. Kimi Raikkonen qualified third ahead of Robert Kubica. Fernando Alonso's hopes were dashed by a suspected gearbox problem.
It was a warmer day at Magny Cours with air temperature at 24 degrees Centigrade and the track 43 degrees, a contrast with yesterday's very cool conditions.
Lewis Hamilton put down an early marker in the first session, but Kimi Raikkonen was less than a tenth off with Massa and Alonso third and fourth - pole position looking like a four-way fight. While the McLarens and Ferraris cruised through the first session Liuzzi, Wurz, Sato, Davidson, Albers and Sutil were knocked out.
In the second session Coulthard's Red Bull developed an electronics problem early on, putting him out of the action along with Ralf Schumacher, Button, Barrichello, Webber and Speed.
Disaster struck Fernando Alonso in the pole position shoot out as the reigning champion pulled into the pits with a gearbox problem after just one lap putting him out of the session and dashing his hopes for the weekend. On track it was a scrap between Massa, Hamilton and Raikkonen for pole.
Felipe Massa snatched pole from Hamilton by just 0.070s with Raikkonen third 0.150s further adrift. Kubica made an emphatic return in the BMW Sauber to take fourth ahead of Fisichella, Kovalainen, Heidfeld, Trulli and Rosberg.
Alonso was officially classified tenth.
For many, finishing third and securing a podium position is a dream result. When you are coming off back to back wins however the result is rather less satisfactory.
Felipe Massa finished the Monaco Grand Prix in that third position, just over a minute behind race winner and championship rival Fernando Alonso. While the result was not great by Massa's high standards, he was nonetheless pretty happy with the weekend as a whole.
"I am really happy with my personal performance over the weekend," Massa began. "However, we were not so happy with our car performance at this track. If you look at how McLaren started on the first day, we knew it would not be so easy to be in front of them. But we managed to limit the damage and third place is not a disaster, when you look at how close and competitive the championship battle is at the moment."
"But certainly, we cannot be a hundred percent happy with the result, given that our rivals filled the top two places. They have some elements of their package that worked better at this circuit than ours. But my personal opinion and I don't know if it is right, is that it was not just McLaren being impressive in Monaco, it was also Ferrari being weak."
"If you look at the difference between McLaren and Renault in Monaco and compare it to the gap between them in Barcelona at the Spanish Grand Prix, there was not much difference.
In Monte Carlo Renault's pace was similar to ours which shows that something in our package, something related to our team, did not work at this track. What we can be sure of is that this situation will not continue, because our car is better than that, which in itself is further motivation to do well at the next race, where our car should have a good package."
Massa is just five points behind Alonso and Lewis Hamilton and looking at the big picture ahead of the Canadian and US races, feels he is very much still in contention for the title.
"I have won two races and Fernando has done the same and the difference as I said is five points," Massa said. "So consistency is what matters over the rest of the season and that is why it is always important to be on the podium. My worst result this year is a sixth place, which is actually not that bad, but you have to make sure you are always in the top three."
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Championship leader Fernando Alonso says Ferrari are the favourites for F1's upcoming trek to North America.
The Spaniard pointed out that while his Mercedes-powered team slaughtered the opposition on the streets of Monte Carlo, Ferrari's recent record - particularly at Indianapolis - means that the red team could soon be back on top.
"We hope it can be different this year," Alonso told the newspaper Diario As, "because we now all go there with the same tyres."
He insisted: "But Ferrari usually win at Indianapolis and so I believe that they go there starting as the favourites - and the same for Canada.
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Indeed, while Ferrari have not triumphed in Monaco since 2001, the Maranello based team has won the United States Grand Prix for the past five years running.
Testing in low downforce trim at Paul Ricard ahead of Monaco, Raikkonen topped the timesheets on both days. After Monte Carlo, Ferrari lie 20 points behind McLaren in the constructors' championship standings.
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Now that would be great!
Just five races into his young career, British rookie Lewis Hamilton is already being linked with a shock switch to Ferrari.
The 22-year-old, after making the most successful start to a debut season in the history of Formula One, is now at the centre of the Monaco team order storm.
Hamilton has even been mentioned as the instigator of the pending FIA investigation, after suggesting to reporters last Sunday that he had been ordered to finish second to Fernando Alonso because he is 'the number two driver' at McLaren.
But even though team boss Ron Dennis groomed Hamilton through racing's junior classes at huge expense, not to mention the existence of a long term contract (to about 2011), British newspaper The Times said there is now 'a raft of speculation' hinting at a future link between Hamilton and F1's famous Italian team.
"Paddock wags (are) suggesting that his route to Ferrari is already being 'lawyered', on the assumption that Kimi Raikkonen is shown the door," motor racing correspondent Edward Gorman wrote.
Gorman added that Hamilton's annual salary could potentially rise from about $500,000 in 2007 to up to $40m 'or more' with Ferrari.
The rumour is backed by another British newspaper - the Daily Mail - and its claim that Hamilton was unashamedly 'angry' in Monaco when it became clear that he was being asked to sacrifice his lead of the drivers' championship and settle for second.
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Kimi Raikkonen might have seen the gap with Alonso and Hamilton increase in the Formula 1 championship standings but the Ferrari driver has said there is still time to close the gap and fight right to the end for the championship title.
In Saturday's qualifying Kimi Raikkonen touched the barrier with his front right wheel. It wasn't a hard knock, but it was enough to snap his steering arm and bend his lower suspension. The team was unable to fix the damage and thus Raikkonen got stuck in 16th position for Sunday's Grand Prix. In the narrow streets in Monte Carlo 16th is almost an impossible position to move you up the field and fight for a race win. Raikkonen was left frustrated behind cars that were slower, but unable to overtake. "It's annoying to be always stuck behind a slower car and not be able to do anything to improve the situation. At least I managed to bring home a point, which is at least better than nothing," he said about his race.
Despite the difficulties of the last two weekends, Raikkonen remains optimistic for the rest of the season. "Obviously the increased gap to the head of the classification makes life more difficult, but this is still the first part of the championship," the Finn said. "I will give it my all to close the gap and will fight right to the end. There are four drivers who, barring any unexpected surprises, have an equal chance of winning a Grand Prix. This situation can help me close up a bit, on the understanding that I start winning again.
"In Monaco, we knew McLaren would be strong, but we also knew we had a strong pace and it would have been nice to see that in a straight fight. I hope everything will finally start going my way right from the next race."
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Kimi Raikkonen is teetering on the "danger zone" of being left out of the fight for the 2007 F1 World Championship.
That is the claim of championship leader Fernando Alonso, who along with his McLaren teammate Lewis Hamilton moved fifteen points clear of Ferrari's Finn at Monaco last weekend.
Ferrari's lesser-paid Felipe Massa, meanwhile, is ten points clear of his high profile teammate, who finished just eighth in the Principality after a qualifying crash set him farther away on the starting grid.
"I believe that, when you are 15 points behind, you risk entering the danger zone," Alonso is quoted as saying by the Spanish newspaper As.
"With one more error, yes, (Raikkonen) will be out of it."
25-year-old Alonso observed that Brazilian Massa is only five points behind the silver-clad pair after Monaco.
He admitted: "I would prefer to fight for the title with my teammate, because then I know that we are fighting with equal conditions. When you are against Ferrari, how things are going to be is harder to predict."
He also vowed to stay out of the controversy about alleged team favouritism within McLaren, saying that he prefers to simply "enjoy the victory" in the days following his second such win in 2007.
Alonso said: "In five races I have gathered 38 points. If I do the same in the next five, I am going to win the title. I know what I have to do."
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Kimi Raikkonen has said that despite a frustrating Monaco Grand Prix he is still as determined as ever that he is in the championship race. The Ferrari driver only managed to pick up a point after starting from 16th and McLaren's clean sweep means that the Finn is now 15 points behind Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton in the standings.
Raikkonen insists that he could not do any better during the race with constant traffic issues holding him back.
Raikkonen said: "We knew we were facing an uphill battle and that's how things turned out. I got a good start, quickly moving up to twelfth, but from then on I was nearly always in traffic, never getting any chance to overtake. I never had a clear track ahead of me and it was only thanks to the strategy that I was able to make up some more places and get into the points, but I couldn't do any better.
"Obviously the situation in the classification is now a bit more complicated but there is still a long way to go in the championship and I am not the sort to give up."
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Finnish TV commentators said that when Kimi arrived to the pits with the broken suspension, he shouted: “We need to get that thing fixed, NOW”. His pit his crew got scared because they had never known that Kimi could shout as loud as he just had. He had always talked in a normal voice. When it was revealed that there wasn’t enough time to fix the suspension, Kimi just sat in the car with his helmet on, went through what just happened and why, released his anger by cursing (that’s the reason why he usually keeps the helmet on when he is angry). Then he relaxed and headed straight to Ferrari’s Media Center, where he gave exceptional, long aswers to reporters.
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Felipe Massa has conceded that there was nothing he could have done to stop the McLarens from romping to victory. The Brazilian said he witnessed impressive dominance from the McLaren pair and all Ferrari could do was settle for fewer points.
Massa said: "Definitely McLaren showed incredible pace today. Even if I pushed with 150% it (the result) would have stayed the same. There was nothing we could do. All we could hope for was a retirement, but finishing third is ok, we still score points. We will have to work hard for the next race, but here it was impossible to catch them."
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After his retirement at the end of the 2006 Formula One season Michael Schumacher has visited the Spanish and Monaco Grand Prix as Ferrari's advisor. According to Jean Todt, who might retire at the end of this season, Schumacher would be his perfect successor.
"Yes, we are thinking about various people who could take over the whole responsibility of Gestione Sportiva," Jean Todt told reporters in Monaco. "You must always try to plan for the future. Michael has the skills to do it and for me it would be the best, but he does not want to do it. Michael loves the team and the team loves him.
"He is a very clever guy, he knows that to be the head of Gestione Sportiva is a very demanding job where you need to spend 10 or 12 hours every day in the office and be solving problems. Simply he doesn't want to do that which I can understand."
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Ferrari endured a difficult qualifying session as its 100% qualifying record this season was broken as neither driver managed to claim pole position, nor even get onto the first row. Felipe Massa was pleased with himself for getting close to the McLaren drivers' times and securing third spot just behind the duo whereas Kimi Raikkonen was disappointed to have made a costly mistake around the swimming pool complex which ended his session. The Finn will consequently start from 15th in the grid for the Monaco Grand Prix where grid starting position is of paramount importance.
Felipe Massa commented: "I am happy as I did a good lap, without traffic and I am in a good position for tomorrow's race. I am confident and will try for a good result. The race here is very long and it is vital to maintain concentration. If it were to rain, it would make it even more of a lottery.
"It was very complicated today to choose the right moment to go out on track, both in terms of traffic and the weather, with the rain threatening to arrive at any moment. I had seen the yellow flags for Kimi and it was a bit of a tricky moment at Rascasse, when I found him stopped in front of me on the track, but somehow I managed to get by with damaging my car."
Kimi Raikkonen said: "There's little to say after this qualifying session. I was on my first run with soft tyres when, coming out of the Swimming Pool Chicane, I hit the barrier with the left front wheel. At first it seemed that everything was alright, but when I got to Rascasse, the car would not make the turn. I managed to get back to the pits and the mechanics tried to fix the car but we realized it could not be done in time.
"Here, the very slightest error costs you dear and it is a real shame because I think I could have fought for pole position. However, I will start from the seventh row so I am expecting a very tough race, but I will do all I can to get a good result for the team."
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Kimi Raikkonen led the Ferrari charge at Monaco on Thursday finishing the day's free practice second fastest overall while team mate Felipe Massa was sixth quickest.
"I am reasonably happy with how things went in free practice today," Raikkonen said. "We have found a good balance on the car right from the morning session and we have completed all the programme we had planned for the day. As usual, it is too early to draw conclusions as to how the rest of the weekend will go, because we don't know what our closest rivals have done and also because the track conditions change a lot from Thursday to Saturday. All in all, a good start to the weekend."
Felipe Massa commented, "I didn't manage to exploit all the car's potential, partly because I always had traffic when I was running in the second session with new tyres. Unfortunately, on this special track, traffic can cost you an awful lot of time. Over a long run, the situation seems good, but we still have work to do on finding the right balance of the car and that includes also on the first lap on new tyres. All the same, I am confident."
Team manager Luca Baldisserri added, "As always, it is difficult to judge the result of free practice, because there are too many unknown factors in our main rivals' work programme, as outright performance can be compromised by traffic on the track. As for ourselves, we can say we achieved everything we had put on the day's job list, without any particular problems. We worked on finding the best set-up on the car for Sunday's race and on the comparison between the two types of tyre on offer from Bridgestone. From what we have seen today, the choice seems less evident than usual. In the light of these three hours of practice, we think we will be competitive both in qualifying and in the race."
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Kimi Raikkonen says he is getting used to Ferrari after switching to the Italian team at the end of last season. The Finn was expected to dominate Felipe Massa but hasn't yet to truly put manners on the Brazilian.
"I don't know if it's exactly the tyres but for sure I'm not as happy with the car as I could be but I think it's getting there," Raikkonen said. "It seems to take a bit of time but we've sorted out a lot of things and I think we've found something in the end, so hopefully it will start to go where we want. I think we just need to get everything together now and start getting better results."
Raikkonen lost out majorly in the last race when his Ferrari failed and he was forced to retire.
"It's only four races old and so many things can happen," he added. "Unfortunately we had a retirement in the last race. I think we could be in a completely different situation now in the championship, but at least the gap is not too big. As you said, there are many cars fighting for it so probably the points can go differently to normal when there are only two guys there. It's less easy to catch anybody so hopefully we can catch up."
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Kimi Raikkonen on Wednesday warned that the return of street circuits to the Formula One calendar could make the sport boring.
In the Monte Carlo paddock, the Ferrari driver said tight and twisty city layouts like Monaco are a good challenge for the drivers but often not conducive to exciting racing.
In addition to Monaco, the F1 calendar of the very near future will feature new street events in Valencia and Singapore. Abu Dhabi's maiden Grand Prix in 2009 is to be staged on a semi-street circuit course.
"I personally like circuits like this, because they are good fun for the drivers and a different challenge," Raikkonen said.
"But sometimes there is not much overtaking - even less than usual - so the races can be boring. It is easy to get stuck behind another car because it is so difficult to pass."
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Felipe Massa is looking forward to what is a bit of a home Grand Prix for the Brazilian. When Massa is in Europe he lives in Monaco and thus the young Ferrari driver is looking forward to race through his own streets in Monte Carlo.
Speaking about the upcoming Monaco Grand Prix Massa said: "This weekend is kind of like a second home race for me, as Monaco is my European base when I am not in Brazil and so that is an extra reason to look forward to what is such a special event.
"Even though I live in Monaco, I have not seen exactly where they have resurfaced the track. But I have seen all the work going on and it is amazing how quickly they build the circuit. It is very difficult in terms of logistics because there is so little space to do anything. I use some of the roads that make up the circuit on a regular basis: either I am going shopping or to a restaurant or to the supermarket, sometimes every day, so I know those bits particularly well, but it is very different once you are in a Formula 1. Even going round this track with my race engineer is a difficult job, so really, Thursday morning practice is the first chance to get a good understanding of any changes."
Massa is clear about Sunday's target: "Of course, my personal target is to win here and that would definitely be better than anything I have managed in Monaco before. My best result here is only a fifth place, but the word "only" is wrong because I was in a Sauber, when that team was still very new to F1 and at the time, that was not so bad. I also had a sixth with them, but last year I did not have a good weekend. I know that Monaco is a very unique race where there can be a lot of retirements, so the first thing is to try and finish the race."
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