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ALONSO ON THE PODIUM IN SPAIN FOR FERRARI
Scuderia Ferrari has closed the gap to McLaren, the current leaders of the Constructors’ classification from nineteen to just three points, thanks to a generous haul of twenty six points picked up in this the weekend’s (9 May 2010) Spanish Grand Prix, the fifth round of the world championship.
Fernando Alonso finished second, much to the delight of the Spanish crowd cheering him on the podium, behind race winner and pole man Mark Webber, whose Red Bull team-mate, Sebastian Vettel came home third. However, Red Bull has also closed the gap to a similar distance behind the Prancing Horse.
“I am happy with getting this second place in front of my fans: I am happy for them, but especially for the team, who have worked so hard this weekend without making mistakes” said Alonso. “It’s true the result came in an unexpected way, but that’s racing. We knew we could expect a difficult Grand Prix, because on tracks like this we still don’t have enough aerodynamic downforce to fight for pole position and the win, even if the races are very long and that was confirmed yet again today. In circumstances like this we have to try and attack and exploit every opportunity. Our strong point seems to be tyre management as ours seemed to be in better condition than those of our rivals in the final stages of the race. We have to up our performance level, but we do have the potential to win the championship. The management system for the blown rear wing worked well but it is still at the experimental stage. Maybe in Turkey we will have an updated version. Now we go to Monaco, a special Grand Prix that everyone wants to win. Set-up and tyres will be different to what we had here and we will see where that puts us compared to the others. After a few difficult races, I got back on the podium and I am second, three points behind the leader of the classification: there is still a long way to go in the championship, but I repeat, this is a great result.”
Fernando now moves to second in the Drivers’ classification, while Felipe Massa contributed a valuable eight points by coming home sixth.
“It was a difficult race,” said Massa. “I got a good start but then I was always behind other cars and I never managed to run at a constant pace. Once again today, the main difficulty was a lack of grip, especially in the third sector: every time it looked as though I might close on Button, he managed to get away from me over some sections of the track. We must work to improve the car’s performance and there is no doubt about it. Even though we brought home a good number of points, I can’t be happy with the way things went this weekend. When I touched a backmarker, the left front wing end plate got broken, but the handling of the car was not affected much. If I’d returned to the pits to change the nose, I would have lost at least three places, so the decision to stay out on track was the right one. Now we immediately head for Monaco, my second home race, given that I live a few hundred metres from the track. We will have different tyres to here and I hope we go back to finding ourselves in a more favourable situation, at least from my point of view.”
As the lights went out, Webber drove aggressively to keep his team-mate behind him, while Fernando came alongside Hamilton, but could not pass him so that he was lying fourth, where he would stay for nearly the entire race. Felipe got a good start from the fifth row, immediately jumping two places to seventh. He too would spend much of the race here, always in touch with the race long duel ahead of him between fifth placed Michael Schumacher and Jenson Button in sixth. However, the weekend long lack of grip meant the Brazilian could never really mount an effective challenge on those ahead. Apart from those drivers who had problems or penalties, everyone was on a one-stop strategy and the pit stops did little to change any places, with the exception of Hamilton getting ahead of Vettel to go second behind Webber, whose lead was never challenged.
Although there were some interesting battles in the midfield, the order hardly changed among the front runners, until a few laps from the end. Vettel was the first to run into trouble, running wide through a gravel trap, making an extra pit stop, which allowed Hamilton to move up to second, Fernando to third and Felipe to seventh. Then, with two laps remaining the English McLaren driver suffered a left front puncture which saw him crashing into the barriers and out of the race. You could hear the noise of the partisan crowd above the engines as this promoted Fernando to second place and also meant Felipe was now sixth.
The final race result for the points finishers thus read like this: Webber, Alonso, Vettel on the podium, with Schumacher fourth, followed by Button, Massa, Sutil, Kubica, Barrichello and Alguersuari.
The twelve teams now tackle the shortest “back to back” schedule in the history of the sport, as the next round takes place around the twisty streets of Monaco, where traditionally, the first day of practice is on Thursday rather than Friday.
“Our aim today was to make the most of the package we had and we can claim to have succeeded in that,” said Ferrari Team Manager, Stefano Domenicali. “Fernando drove an amazing race, managing the car and tyres in the best way possible and this second place is just reward for all the hard work he has done, along with the team. Felipe got a great start and was always in a battle with Button and Schumacher, in a race that was always difficult for him: we have to work out how to make his car work the tyres better. Overall, we can be pleased with this result, given the situation in terms of different performance levels when compared to some of our rivals. However, as we are well aware, the races are long and difficult and only end at the chequered flag. We must continue to work on our performance because we have a significant gap to make up. We must continue to work on performance, because some of our rivals have shown they have made a bigger step forward than us.”
2010 Grand Prix of Spain
Driver Position Time Gap Laps Chassis
F. Alonso 2nd 1:36.08.166 + 24.065 66 283
F. Massa 6th 1:36.49.868 + 65.767 66 284
Weather: air temperature 22/21 °C, track temperature 31/29 °C, partially cloudy.
Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro picked up 26 points from the Spanish Grand Prix, thanks to a second place for Fernando Alonso and a sixth for Felipe Massa. After five races, the Scuderia lies second in the Constructors’ classification, with its drivers in second and seventh places in theirs; Fernando ahead of Felipe.
Results
1. Mark WebberAustralia Red Bull-Renault 66 laps 1hr 35m 44.101s
2. Fernando AlonsoSpain Ferrari-Ferrari +00m 24.0s
3. Sebastian VettelGermany Red Bull-Renault +00m 51.3s
4. Michael SchumacherGermany Mercedes-Mercedes +01m 02.1s
5. Jenson ButtonBritain McLaren-Mercedes +01m 03.7s
6. Felipe MassaBrazil Ferrari-Ferrari +01m 05.7s
7. Adrian SutilGermany Force India-Mercedes +01m 12.9s
8. Robert KubicaPoland Renault-Renault +01m 13.6s
9. Rubens BarrichelloBrazil Williams-Cosworth +1 lap
10. Jaime AlguersuariSpain Toro Rosso-Ferrari +1 lap
11. Vitaly PetrovRussia Renault-Renault +1 lap
12. Kamui KobayashiJapan BMW Sauber-Ferrari +1 lap
13. Nico RosbergGermany Mercedes-Mercedes +1 lap
14. Lewis HamiltonBritain McLaren-Mercedes +2 laps [DNF]
15. Vitantonio LiuzziItaly Force India-Mercedes +2 laps [DNF]
16. Nico HulkenbergGermany Williams-Cosworth +2 laps
17. Jarno TrulliItaly Lotus-Cosworth +3 laps
18. Timo GlockGermany Virgin-Cosworth +3 laps
19. Lucas di GrassiBrazil Virgin-Cosworth +4 laps
Rtd Sebastien BuemiSwitzerland Toro Rosso-Ferrari 42 laps completed
Rtd Karun ChandhokIndia HRT-Cosworth 27 laps completed
Rtd Pedro de la RosaSpain BMW Sauber-Ferrari 18 laps completed
Rtd Bruno SennaBrazil HRT-Cosworth 0 laps completed
Dns Heikki KovalainenFinland Lotus-Cosworth
Fastest lap:
Lewis HamiltonBritain McLaren-Mercedes 1m 24.357s lap 59
F1 DRIVERS' CHAMPIONSHIP 2010 (after round 5 of 19)
POSITION / DRIVER / TEAM / POINTS1 / Jenson Button / Vodafone McLaren Mercedes / 70
2 / Fernando Alonso / Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro / 67
3 / Sebastian Vettel / Red Bull Racing / 60
4 / Mark Webber / Red Bull Racing / 53
5 / Nico Rosberg / Mercedes GP Petronas / 50
6 / Lewis Hamilton / Vodafone McLaren Mercedes / 49
= / Felipe Massa / Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro / 49
8 / Robert Kubica / Renault F1 Team / 44
9 / Michael Schumacher / Mercedes GP Petronas / 22
10 / Adrian Sutil / Force India F1 Team / 16
11 / Vitantonio Liuzzi / Force India F1 Team / 8
12 / Rubens Barrichello / AT&T Williams / 7
13 / Vitaly Petrov / Renault F1 Team / 6
14 / Jaime Alguersuari / Scuderia Toro Rosso / 3
15 / Nico Hulkenberg / AT&T Williams / 1
16 / Jarno Trulli / Lotus F1 Racing / 0
= / Heikki Kovalainen / Lotus F1 Racing / 0
= / Karun Chandhok / Hispania Racing Team / 0
= / Bruno Senna / Hispania Racing Team / 0
= / Timo Glock / Virgin Racing / 0
= / Lucas di Grassi / Virgin Racing / 0
= / Kamui Kobayashi / Sauber / 0
= / Pedro de la Rosa / Sauber / 0
= / Sebastien Buemi / Scuderia Toro Rosso / 0
F1 CONSTRUCTORS' CHAMPIONSHIP 2010 (after round 5 of 19)
POSITION / TEAM / POINTS1 / Vodafone McLaren Mercedes / 119
2 / Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro / 116
3 / Red Bull Racing / 113
4 / Mercedes GP Petronas / 72
5 / Renault F1 Team / 50
6 / Force India F1 Team / 24
7 / AT&T Williams / 8
8 / Scuderia Toro Rosso / 3
9 / Lotus F1 Racing / 0
= / Hispania Racing Team / 0
= / Virgin Racing / 0
= / Sauber / 0
(Ends)
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Release Number: Ferrari_458
Date of Issue: 24 September 2018. Time of Issue: 09:55:00