Massa takes victory as Raikkonen retires
Third victory of the season for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro, the second courtesy of Felipe Massa. This is win number ten in the Spanish Grand Prix for Ferrari and number 195 from 745 races entered. It was Felipe's fourth career win from 75 Grand Prix starts.
Jean Todt: "Pole position, victory and fastest race lap: for the second consecutive race weekend, Felipe Massa put in a flawless performance. He was really great today in a great Ferrari car. It was an exciting race, especially in the opening stages: the duel at the start between Felipe and Alonso, disappointment for Kimi's retirement due to a problem in the wiring to the alternator, flames at the first pit stop. In the second part of the race, Felipe drove impeccably, controlling the situation and bring home a wonderful win. We know that one of the indispensable ingredients for winning the championship is reliability and twice now it has been missing this season, today with Kimi's car. Therefore, despite three wins and four pole positions, we are back to a following role in both classifications, because of the great competitiveness of our main rivals. This season is very hard to predict, there is still a long way to go and much work to do to reach the objectives we have set ourselves. We know what is required and how important will be the support of all our technical partners."
Felipe Massa: "Fantastic!! I cannot find the words to describe the emotions I feel after such a closely fought race. The duel at the start was very tight: I took some risks but I absolutely did not want to lose position and that meant we touched when he came up the inside of me. Luckily, the car was undamaged, and so I was immediately able to pull away from my pursuers. I wanted to get a good lead straight away so that I could manage the situation in the second stint of the race and that's how it went. The F2007 is a great car, but we need to improve further in order to get both cars across the finish line, as our closest rivals have done. Reliability is the key. Now we come to the Monaco race: it can be something of a lottery there and you need a bit of luck on your side. Once again, I would like to thank Michael for the help he has given me over all these years. His lessons have been useful to me!"
Kimi Raikkonen: "Honestly, there's little to say, except that I'm very disappointed. I lost a place to Hamilton at the start, but made the most of the fight between Felipe and Fernando to get back to third place. I was running at a good pace and could have had a good result, but suddenly the car had an electrical problem and all I could was come back to the garage. I have lost precious points but there are still thirteen races to recover."
Luca Baldisserri: A great performance from Felipe, who completed what was a perfect weekend for him. We had struggled in free practice to do a quick time over a single lap with new tyres but we had seen that our race pace was very good and today that was confirmed. A shame that Kimi had a problem in the wiring to the alternator: there was no warning and now we have to see what caused it, robbing him of a probably podium finish. Then we had a slight fuel leak at Felipe's first pit stop, which caused a small fire that did not do any damage either on the car or the refuelling rig. Once more, reliability is crucial and we must leave nothing to chance to ensure that a technical problem does not rob us of a good result again."
