By the way.. Alonso made a pretty snide remark about "beating his teammate" in an interview with will Buxton. I will edit this post with a YouTube video if I can find it.
I could've followed FP2 live, but went to bed late last night, so I was sleeping still at 6:00am and it looks like I'm gonna miss FP3 too.
At least back in Europe I have the chance to watch the quali, preview and race live, as they are at 6:00am. Pretty decent schedule considering the last 4 races...
Sonny, can you get FoxSports Latin America in your cable? They show everything live and also have re-runs at decent hours
quoteKimi Raikkonen, P1 - 1:28.337, 6th; P2 - 1:27.296, 5th “We had a particularly busy time on track today, trying to do as many laps as possible to complete the planned programme over the two free practice sessions. In the morning, we tried various set-ups, alternating between two different rear wings, while in the second session, we concentrated on preparing for qualifying and the race and on analysing the behaviour of the two compounds Pirelli has brought here. This evening, we will carefully analyse all the data gathered, to decide which direction to go in.”
Pat Fry, Ferrari chassis director “Today we had a particularly packed programme and despite the very poor track conditions complicating our task, mainly in the first session, we managed to get through it without any glitches. We tried various aero solutions in the morning and did a comparison between the two Pirelli compounds this afternoon. We have suffered with poor grip especially on the hard tyres and this made controlling the car more difficult, but that was the case for most of the teams. The data gathered from the work we split between the two cars will be extremely useful to understand in which areas we can improve and, even if our rivals proved to be very strong, we will do our utmost to be as well prepared as possible for qualifying and the race.”
quoteRaikkonen returned to Ferrari over the winter but has struggled more than Alonso this year. However, Montezemolo has no doubt that the Finn will turn his fortunes around.
"Kimi I think has improved step-by-step until today and I hope he can do good tomorrow, although tomorrow I don't expect a lot. I know Kimi very well, he is a fantastic driver who does not feel comfortable with the car but is improving. I spoke a lot with him today and he is more pleased with the car and I think he will be even more pleased in the near future. He's strong and I like him very much."
Marc Priestley þ@f1elvis 2h
quoteJust a brief chat with Kimi, who's definitely happier with the car. Higher track temps helping, but he has the front end he likes.
I just remembered how I felt in 2010 and 2011, when I saw the driver's list on TV during the GP weekends and missed the letters RAI in it.
So even though I know Kimi doesn't have much chances to win this year, I'm really glad and thankful for having the privilege of watching him race in F1. Every season since his return is a gift and we should enjoy it.
So, thank you Kimi for giving us the privilege to see you work your magic and good luck tomorrow and Sunday.
PS: 5 posts in a row! OK I'll shut up now Where is everybody?
quoteKIMI's INTERVIEW AFTER THE QUALIFYING "There's now a great sixth none of the terrible result of the case. Of course, we don't want these to fight for ranking, but it is what we can do right now, The whole weekend has been difficult, but the main thing is that we got something done. In the morning, it was more difficult than the whole weekend. Then we changed the car quite a lot, but the same problems lie there. Difficult to get even one decent rounds that keep the racing line one bit. If you look at the morning, it was pretty disastrous. We changed the car quite a bit since then, but still it was difficult. I had to fight really hard,that was one lap of it. We have had the small stuff all the time, therefore, have 2 fight all the time with car I was able to do a surprisingly good long run yesterday.Wind direction in the heat are the key elements of how difficult it'll be. "The race opportunities may be slightly better, if only I could drive a normal race w/o complicated situations".
quoteKimi on beating Alonso today: "Obviously people are interested in that side, but for me until we are in the front it does not interest me. Obviously I try to stay in front of him, but it doesn't give me much satisfaction when we are sixth and seventh - that's not where we want to be."