Rains spoil Ferrari's Qualifying at Spa

By Jay
August 29 2010

A light rain at the final minutes of the qualifying, just when the Ferrari drivers were preparing for the flying lap, saw Fernando Alonso qualify tenth on the grid, while Felipe Massa couldn't better his timing, qualifying 6th.

Ferrari gambled on waiting for the final minutes to make the final run, a strategy which would have worked, and Ferrari would have got a good qualifying grid position, at least third and fourth, hadn't the weather changed.

Ferrari opted for wait and watch policy, and decided to run at the final three minutes, when the track was rubberred in by other cars, and much pacier.

The light drizzle however affected Turn-1 of the track, where the soft tyres struggled to get pace, and Alonso was slower by more than one and half seconds of the leader, Mark Webber of Red Bull.

Alonso, who topped the lap times during both the practice session on Friday, was very disappointed with the result.

"Obviously, I can't be pleased with this result, but it has to be said that if there is one track where grid position is less critical than others, then it is this one, both because of the track characteristics and because the weather can be very changeable."

"In some cases the right decision at the right time can see you make up an advantage of a minute, therefore we will have to be clever and make the most of every opportunity," he said.

"In Q3, I only had one set of new soft tyres left and I used it on my second run when, unfortunately, there was a bit of rain. There's no point in making a drama over this tenth place: we must stay calm and concentrated, because qualifying is one thing and the race is quite another when the points are given out, not today."

Felipe, who fared better than his team-mater, acknowledged that if the track had stayed dry, he would have improved his grid position.

"On my first run in Q3 I got a good lap, but maybe it could have been a couple of tenths quicker, while on the second one, I immediately had rain at Turn 1 and I locked the wheels and I decided to pit without completing the lap, because I would not have been able to improve my lap time. If we have a track that is only slightly damp but not too wet, it could be a problem because the rain tyres get destroyed very quickly and it will be necessary to manage them very carefully."