ESPNF1 Staff
October 15, 2011
Felipe Massa was quicker than Fernando Alonso despite not having the new front wing © Getty Images
Felipe Massa said that he has been making progress in qualifying since the mid-season break after he outqualified Fernando Alonso at the Korean Grand Prix.
Massa moved up to fifth with his final lap of qualifying, beating his team-mate by 0.15s. With Alonso also running an improved front wing that Ferrari has designed for its 2012 car, Massa's performance was even more impressive. He said that he was pleased to be stronger in qualifying than earlier this season, but warned the team was still comfortably the third quickest team.
"I am happy with my performance today," Massa said. "I think I got a good lap on my final run, after the first one in Q3, when I used the same set of Supersofts I had already run in Q2. My impression is that we are now also improving our Saturday performance, but there are still four cars in front of us and so the grid position stays more or less the same."
Massa also said that he feels the tyres are holding up better than first expected, and would be focusing on keeping out of trouble during the race.
"Going into this Grand Prix there was a lot of concern about tyre degradation but, at least from what we have seen today, it seems to be less severe than expected. Let's see how things go tomorrow. I am confident: if nothing strange happens to me, as has been the case in the last few races, then I think I can do a good job. It was actually here, a year ago, that I stood on the podium for the last time: maybe tonight I'll watch the race again, even if the weather then was very different to what we can expect tomorrow."
Credit: ESPN F1 (en.espnf1.com)
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