Alonso: Light at the end of the tunnel

Although he once again qualified in P5, Fernando Alonso says Ferrari have at least closed the gap a bit to leaders Red Bull Racing

Saturday's qualifying session in Turkey saw Alonso take his fourth successive P5 of this year's campaign.

But while he may not be moving up the grid, Ferrari did close the gap to their rivals as last time out in China Alonso was 1.4s off the pace. In Turkey, he was just 0.802s down on Sebastian Vettel.

"Fifth place is not the sort of result one can be pleased about, but today I am happy because I felt the car was more competitive than it has been in the first three qualifying sessions of the season," said the Spaniard.

"Getting into Q2 without using the soft tyres is significant.

"We have made a small step forward in terms of performance: it's not yet enough and we quickly need to make a bigger one, but it's definitely a confidence boost for the whole team, who are working in the right direction.

"I would say that this the first sign of light at the end of the tunnel in this early part of the season. Fifth place also means I avoid the dirty side of the track, which is usually a big handicap here."

Ferrari will now spend this evening deciding what strategy will work best in Sunday's grand prix having been caught out in China when they opted to do a two-stopper.

"It's hard to say what will be the best strategy for tomorrow, because we don't know how the tyres will behave: we will have to be ready for any eventuality and be very flexible."

Alonso also paid his respect to golfer Seve Ballesteros, who lost his battle against cancer.

"Finally, I want to take the opportunity to express my great sadness at the death of a great personality in Spanish sport, Severiano Ballesteros, who put Spain on the golfing map: I offer all my sympathies to those close to him at this painful time."

Source: Planet-F1

Webber: Mystified by the gap to Sebastian

Mark Webber qualified third on home soil for the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, but he simply could not match his team mate around Albert Park on the day. It is a long race and he is well positioned to challenge for a win at home, where his best result to date is fifth place. The 34 year old spoke at the FIA post qualifying press conference, here are the highlights:

It was seven-one-hundredths-of-a-second between you and Sebastian here last year. It is a lot more than that this year. What went wrong?
Mark Webber: Yeah. Couldn’t do the times today. I was disappointed, obviously, with my performance. Seb put in a very good lap. Obviously, disappointed to get bumped off the front row as well. Tried my best. Mystified to the gap to Seb, to be honest. I will have to go through it and have a look at where I can improve and go from there. So bit frustrating, of course, but credit to the team. The guys have done an incredible job. It is not the best day for me. The bar is high but I would like to have done better today but we still have to reflect on the performance of the team today and what they have done over the winter is a great effort.

Third, not where you hoped to be, but some people are saying that qualifying isn’t quite as important as it used to be, due to the factors introduced to liven up the race. Do you agree?
Mark: Well, today didn’t go to plan for me, obviously. I’m not overly rapt to be third on the grid. Seb did a very very good lap time, so I need to… It’s our first qualifying of the year. We’ve had some reasonable exposure with this car in performance runs, but today’s obviously absolutely serious and everything counted, so we put everything forward. I wasn’t in the fight for pole, clearly, so we need to address that and take it into tomorrow’s race. You have a point, obviously. It’s not like last year in terms of qualifying, how powerful it was, but nevertheless it’s still important, you know. I would rather to be here than eighth or ninth. I think the most important thing out of today is that we can see the potential of the car. It’s the first time that everyone’s got into things. The team have done a phenomenal job, so I’m looking forward to a good race tomorrow, get some good points and we will come away from here having learned a lot, as we already have done today.

How unknown is the race tomorrow? How much are you going into the unknown?
Mark: We got a snapshot on Friday, what we might expect on Sunday; there’s still some questions, for sure but not as many as… We’ve had a reasonable build-up in testing. Seb and I had a smooth run on Friday so the team’s got some good data to lean on, to go into the grand prix tomorrow, and obviously we’ll put everything forward to get the best result for us.

Can you beat Sebastian tomorrow?
Mark: Well, it’s never impossible, but unfortunately I’ve let Lewis onto the front row as well. Obviously I’m not happy with that for the team. It’s a long season, so today you can be disappointed, of course, but we’ll go into tomorrow’s race hoping to get the best result possible and as the boys have already said, it’s a long grand prix, a lot of things can happen.

Were you using the KERS in your car today?
Mark: No.

Would it have made a difference to getting you on the front row if you had been?
Mark: Maybe. We didn’t run it today for reasons we will keep in the team.

Are you surprised by Ferrari’s performance?
Mark: Well, yeah, a little bit but I think today it’s pretty clear that people are still getting used to the tyres and maybe it’s not the right window for some people, so this is moving the lap times around a lot. I think we saw Nick Heidfeld go out very early. Some people are still finding their way. Maybe Ferrari are in that boat.

How hungry are you going into your home grand prix tomorrow?
I think you want to do well at every grand prix, clearly. I think there’s a little bit extra emotion, obviously, as both these guys can relate to: Germany for Seb and UK for Lewis. That’s normal. Any sportsman competing in a big event at home, there’s a fraction more emotion attached to it. It shouldn’t really make you perform better, you’ve got to perform everywhere you go, but also keep in mind that it’s a long season this year. You need to get off to a good start in the championship. I didn’t put myself into the best position today but I’ve had tough Saturdays before and Sunday… it’s a long, long day, so I hope I will see you guys again tomorrow.

Source: YallaF1

Vettel: Points gap is not that dramatic

Sebastian Vettel insists the 24-point gap between himself and Mark Webber is not as big as it looks as he bids to become Red Bull's first World Champ

Vettel and his team-mate Webber are just two of the five drivers still involved in this year's title fight with Webber leading the way on 187 points while Vettel is the final driver in the running with 163.

However, the German, who has claimed seven pole positions but only two race wins this season, is adamant the gap is not as big as it may appear.

"Whether I'm not 24, 25 or 30 points behind I still could not care less. The new points system scares people more than necessary," Vettel told the Bild.

"Many are not yet familiar with it and that a win counts for 25 points. If I was eight or nine behind with the old system where there were ten for a victory, then it would all look much less dramatic."

Vettel, though, has had a mixed season, coming for a great deal of cricitism as a result of two high profile accidents.

The first saw him take out his team-mate in Turkey while in Belgium he crashed into McLaren's Jenson Button.

But despite the complaints, which had McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh labeling him a "crash kid", the Red Bull racer says he has not once doubted his ability to win the World title.

"In peace lies strength," he added. "We are not panicking but continue to work quietly.

"I believe I can win the title and that is crucial!"

Source: Planet-F1