Mixed feelings for Ferrari
It was a day of mixed feelings for the Scuderia Ferrari as Felipe Massa was not able to keep his pole position and also Kimi was overtaken by a McLaren. Massa finished the Malaysian Grand Prix in 5th position as team mate Raikkonen was on the podium in third.
Jean Todt "This is definitely a disappointing result. After a great qualifying yesterday, with Felipe on pole and Kimi third, we certainly expected better. Unfortunately, we have had to settle for a third and a fifth place from Kimi and Felipe respectively. The crucial points for getting a race win are grid position, the start, the strategy, reliability and obviously, the performance of the cars. Today, we did not manage a good start with Felipe, who later, in an effort to catch up, went off track and dropped to fifth place, thus compromising his race. Kimi was also overtaken at the start and from then on was unable to do anything about it. In the end, we got both cars home but the ten points we got are definitely cause for satisfaction. We know we are up against a very strong and battle ready opponent who did a better job than us today. Fortunately, in just one week's time we get the chance to make up for it at Sakhir. We will do all we can there to get the best possible result."
Kimi Raikkonen "A day of mixed feelings. On the one hand I am happy to have picked up six points, on the other, I am disappointed that the race did not live up to my expectations. This weekend we had to make some compromises on the car and that meant we were unable to exploit its full potential. Today we lacked a bit of speed when up against our main rivals. I repeat that I'm a bit disappointed but I am also aware this is just the beginning of the season and that these points will definitely be important for the championship as it evolves. The team did a good job, given all the uncertainties we had. We have to try and improve to get one hundred percent out of all the elements of the package. The first corner? Fernando and Lewis were just better than us."
Felipe Massa "It was a very tough race in which we suffered a lot. It was almost impossible to overtake. I tried to attack Lewis, but I made a mistake and ended up off the track. I cannot blame myself for trying and next time things will go better. The race we did not go the way we had expected and our pace was slower than we had expected. Now, we have to find out why and work to improve the situation in the coming races. But it was still important to have got the car to the flag as it is vital to always score points."
Luca Baldisserri "There is no point in denying that we are disappointed. Our performance level was definitely lower than expected and lower than what we had seen in testing last week as well as on Friday and Saturday. We will have to take a very close look at what happened. Of course the start played a big part in the way the race evolved. Felipe did not make the most of pole and then he was unlucky when trying to pass Hamilton, going off the track, but more critically, losing vital position. The fact that the performance gap between the cars in the race was not as great as we had expected made the situation more complicated, also when taking into account our strategies. Both Kimi and Felipe spent a lot of time in traffic and were thus unable to get the most out of their cars. But we can be pleased about getting both cars to the finish, given the uncertainties the day before. But we now have to work on ensuring that all elements of the package are operating at their maximum."
