A surprised Fernando Alonso said Ferrari had reason to be happy about its performance despite missing out on pole position for the German Grand Prix.
The Spaniard was beaten by Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel by just 0.002 seconds, the German denying the Maranello squad its first pole since the 2008 season.
Alonso was nonetheless delighted with the result, which he admits was a step forward for the Italian outfit.
"I think we have to be happy," said Alonso, who hadn't started from the front row since last year's Hungarian Grand Prix. "We are in the first row for the first time this season so that is definitely a step forward for us.
"We have been competitive all weekend, I'm very confident with the car. I was very happy with the car in Q1, Q2 and Q3.
"Finally we made a perfect Saturday. Obviously we lost pole position by a small margin, but the points are tomorrow not Saturday so we need to stay focused for tomorrow.
"The target is a good day tomorrow after a good day today. We'll try to score good points tomorrow."
The two-time champion said he was not expecting to be so close to Red Bull in Q3, the Milton Keynes team having dominated qualifying this season.
"No, not really," said Alonso. "We always expect the Red Bulls in Q3 to give something more. We saw this is very close in free practice but then in Q3 they are far away.
"We were surprised to be that close and finally fighting for a pole position after 10 races. It took a bit longer but now we are very close."
Team-mate Felipe Massa completed Ferrari's strongest qualifying of the year with third position.
"I think it was a good performance from us," said Massa. "It was a very tough qualifying. In Q3 I could not put all the sectors together.
"I am happy to be back in Q3 and more focused for the race tomorrow. I hope we can do a good job and score many points for the team and myself."
News from Formula One in the Formation Lap.
Showing posts with label German GP. Show all posts
Showing posts with label German GP. Show all posts
Sunday, 25 July 2010
Glock hopes Virgin can worry Lotus
Timo Glock thinks that Lotus may have to start worrying about the challenge from his Virgin Racing outfit once again judging by the success of recent updates added to his car.
Although Lotus said recently that its attention had shifted away from the contest between the new teams on to the fight with the established outfits, Glock reckons the battle of F1 rookies has been reignited once again.
And, after updates to the VR-01 helped him lead the new team contest on Friday in Hockenheim, and more tweaks scheduled to be fitted to his car before final free practice, Glock is more encouraged than ever about Virgin's form.
When asked about Lotus' recent claims that they had moved their attention away from worrying about the new team contest, Glock said: "Maybe they have to think about it again! Let's see.
"It is hard to say after a Friday about who is driving what engine, how old is the engine and just let's see how tomorrow goes.
"However, it is positive that we have two races now where we bring parts and they work. It is quite a nice step and I hope there is more to come.
"Nick [Wirth, technical director] is pushing for another big upgrade later in the season and that could bring us another step. And I hope now the time comes where we can concentrate only on bringing performance on the car."
Virgin Racing had one of its biggest updates of the season at the British Grand Prix and Glock thinks that finally the team is making the progress that he had hoped for when he joined.
"It is more positive, yes, definitely. It is going in the right direction," he said. "The one is Silverstone was quite a big one, which brought us quite close to Lotus.
"And now we have another three or four tenths which should theoretically bring us in front of them."
Although Lotus said recently that its attention had shifted away from the contest between the new teams on to the fight with the established outfits, Glock reckons the battle of F1 rookies has been reignited once again.
And, after updates to the VR-01 helped him lead the new team contest on Friday in Hockenheim, and more tweaks scheduled to be fitted to his car before final free practice, Glock is more encouraged than ever about Virgin's form.
When asked about Lotus' recent claims that they had moved their attention away from worrying about the new team contest, Glock said: "Maybe they have to think about it again! Let's see.
"It is hard to say after a Friday about who is driving what engine, how old is the engine and just let's see how tomorrow goes.
"However, it is positive that we have two races now where we bring parts and they work. It is quite a nice step and I hope there is more to come.
"Nick [Wirth, technical director] is pushing for another big upgrade later in the season and that could bring us another step. And I hope now the time comes where we can concentrate only on bringing performance on the car."
Virgin Racing had one of its biggest updates of the season at the British Grand Prix and Glock thinks that finally the team is making the progress that he had hoped for when he joined.
"It is more positive, yes, definitely. It is going in the right direction," he said. "The one is Silverstone was quite a big one, which brought us quite close to Lotus.
"And now we have another three or four tenths which should theoretically bring us in front of them."
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