Formula 1: Turkish Grand Prix- Free Practice Session Update
May 09, 2008
Shell
Something of an up and down day for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro, in the first two free practicesessions for the Turkish Grand Prix, here at Istanbul Park. Felipe Massa was fastest in themorning, with Kimi Raikkonen topping the afternoon time sheet. However, the reigning worldchampion had to sit out practically all the morning session because of a gearbox problem. “For theumpteenth time today we learnt, if indeed we needed to learn it, that it only takes the slightest littlehitch to lose valuable time,” commented the Team Principal of the Gestione Sportiva, StefanoDomenicali. “From what we saw on track, it is very close between us and our main competitors.From our side, we need to work very carefully to find the right settings for both cars and to be in thebest possible shape for qualifying and, above all, for the race.”
Kimi Raikkonen:
“Not the best of Fridays. This morning, I only managed one timed lap before agearbox problem meant I could not go out for the rest of the session. In the afternoon, I struggled abit to find the right settings on the car. One of the main problems today was getting the tyres up tothe correct temperature, but I think that tomorrow, partly as the grip level on the track improves andpartly as we work to improve the set-up, it will be a different situation. We lost valuable time thismorning, but we still have enough data to analyse so that we can be ready to tackle the rest of theweekend.”
Felipe Massa:
“Overall, this was a positive day. The track is very fast, even if it’s still a bit dirty,which meant it was quite easy to make mistakes. The low temperatures mean it is difficult to getthe most out of the tyres on a first timed lap, especially on the harder ones. We tried varioussettings and now we need to look at the data from everything we have done over these threehours, to be as well prepared as possible. I feel comfortable on this track and I think I can be verycompetitive tomorrow and on Sunday in the race: it would be fantastic to win again here, afterhaving done it for the past two years.”
Luca Baldisserri:
“This Friday’s free practice did not go entirely to plan. This morning we had agearbox problem on Kimi’s car which meant he was stuck in the pits for most of the first session.Felipe managed to get through his planned programme and is reasonably satisfied with thehandling of his car, while Kimi is less so. As usual for a Friday, we worked on finding the best set-up on the car and on a comparison of the two types of Bridgestone tyre available to us. Now wehave to study all the data we have gathered to understand how to improve the performance onboth cars.”
