Ferrari ended a disappointing qualifying
Ferrari finished fifth for Sebastian Vettel and fourteenth for Kimi Räikkönen in the qualifying session for the Hungarian GP. The Italian team was unlucky with the circumstances despite the promising pace it showed in the final practice session.
Kimi Räikkönen felt pretty comfortable with its car during the third practice, but he was caught out by unlucky conditions in qualifying. The Finn had good speed in the wet segment and posted a good time on dry-weather tyres in Q2. Unfortunately he was one of the first drivers to cross the finish line in that part and with the rapidly drying track he was overtaken by almost everyone coming behind him.
“I’m disappointed by the result of this qualifying, it’s really a shame because our car has been working well all weekend and even in wet conditions the handling was very good,” lamented the Finn.
“For sure we are far from where we should be. At the end of Q2 I went out for my last attempt and I did a decent lap, at least for that moment, but the conditions were improving every lap, the track was getting faster and unfortunately we did not make it through Q3.”
“Whatever the reason, when the conditions are like today it’s not easy.”
The 2007 champion admitted he faces a long race tomorrow as overtaking is particularly difficult on the slow, twisty circuit of the Hungaroring.
“We tried to do the right things, unfortunately we will pay a price tomorrow, it will be difficult to overtake starting from the back but we won’t give up. We’ll do our best, the speed is there and I’m sure we can make something out.”
Sebastian Vettel thought Ferrari missed a good opportunity for a good result because his car had the speed after a scruffy weekend in Silverstone.
”I am not happy with P5, because it could have been better,” started the German.
“It was quite a mess at the beginning to get through, then at the end I think we had a good performance in the car. We improved for this afternoon, but unfortunately the result doesn’t show it.”
The quadruple champion struggled all weekend long with the car balance, but the team managed to get it together for qualifying.
“The pace was there, but we were not able to get the lap. It’s a shame because in the end it was very good, I think it was already half a second down, then there was a yellow flag which caught us out, but we kept going.”
Ferrari made lightning starts with both cars in last year’s Hungarian GP when Vettel and Räikkönen moved into the leading positions starting from the second row. Even if that is not realistic with Vettel sitting in the third row, he hopes to make up a few places right after the red lights go off.
“Then there was a bit of traffic, sometimes it is just like that. I think we have the pace to compete for the podium tomorrow, hopefully we’ll have a good start then we’ll go from there. It’s a long race, anything can happen here.”
This year’s races often disappointed in terms of strategy because of the very hard compounds, but tomorrow could be a rather challenging day if temperatures climb up as high as they have done so far this weekend.
“Other than that, I think that in the race pace usually we are quicker. Usually all the people decide to do the fastest strategy possible, but there’s always something you can do.”
“If the occasion comes up to do something smart I know we have the people on board to do it, so I trust them,” concluded the German.
