Spaniard admits Ferrari not good enough to compete with top two
Last Updated: October 15, 2011 11:52am
Fernando Alonso: Qualified sixth in Korea practice
Ferrari's qualifying positions in Korea paint an accurate picture of where they are in the pecking order according to Fernando Alonso.
The Italian team were way off the pace behind the Red Bulls and McLarens - the latter beating Red Bull to pole for the first time this season.
Both Ferraris were over a second behind pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton, with Felipe Massa best-placed in fifth and Alonso behind the Brazilian in sixth.
"I can't be happy with sixth," said the Spaniard. "But the position reflects our current situation.
"McLaren and Red Bull are stronger than us so it just leaves us to fight between ourselves for fifth and sixth places.
One area that Alonso believes could hand an advantage to Ferrari is the expected high wear of the Pirelli tyres.
Disadvantage
But with so little dry running so far the two-time world champion admits that this will not be easy factor to predict.
"When tyre degradation is very high, usually we are in good shape," he said. "But here the situation is not very clear, as the behaviour of the Supersofts over a long run and on full tanks is still an unknown quantity.
"Unfortunately, I start from the dirty side of the grid, which should be a major disadvantage here, so I hope I don't lose a place to Rosberg.
Speaking of his qualifying performance, Alonso added: "We had considered using this tyre right from Q1 but then we decided not to take too many risks. Today, we were losing too much time in the first sector, where we lacked top speed.
"On my last run, I immediately lost a few tenths at the first corner and after that, I could not make up the time, so I decided not to complete the lap."
Credit: Sky Sports (www.skysports.com)
No comments:
Post a Comment