Alonso: “As always, today too we tried to do our best”

The two Scuderia Ferrari drivers, Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso, achieved the sixth and tenth times in the first night qualifying on the Sakhir track. However, the Finn and the Spaniard will start tomorrow's race, over a distance of 57 laps, from fifth and ninth place on the grid: the clean part of the track, a significant advantage. This is because Daniel Ricciardo, third today with Red Bull, has to serve the ten-place grid penalty he received in Malaysia last Sunday.

Kimi was fifth in Q1, one position ahead of Fernando. After an initial attempt on Medium tyres, the two were forced to switch to Soft, a compound which proved to be the only one to use throughout the day. Q2 was a little more complicated for Scuderia Ferrari: Fernando then managed to place fifth in the final minutes, while Kimi took tenth place, the last one needed to get through to the round. In the final part of the session, the Finn managed to find a very good lap, while the Spaniard was slowed down by a drop in performance that the team will have to try to better understand.

The strongest team at the moment monopolized the front row, with Nico Rosberg able to put his Mercedes on pole ahead of Lewis Hamilton. The second row tomorrow will feature Valtteri Bottas with Williams and Sergio Perez with Force India.

Today was the first night qualifying in the history of the Bahrain Grand Prix. The organizers have already confirmed that the evening format will continue to be adopted in the coming years, as the late start of the event has proved very popular among local spectators for whom Sunday is a working day. We hope that those present at the circuit tomorrow will see an exciting race, despite this being the first race of the season in which fuel consumption could be truly crucial. As far as tires are concerned, the data acquired suggests that the best strategy is a three-stop strategy. Only those with lower degradation will be able to risk the two-stop tactic.

Fernando Alonso: “As always, today too we tried to do our best and now, to understand the reason for the decrease in power recorded – lap after lap – during Q3, we have to wait for the car to return from parc fermé. We had already seen during the winter tests that this circuit was particularly suitable for Mercedes-powered cars, because they can exploit their maximum speed on the long straights, but given the free practice and the first two portions of qualifying, perhaps we could have gained a few more positions. Now we just have to think about doing well tomorrow, especially at the start, given that we are on the clean side thanks to the penalty given to Ricciardo, and study what the best strategy is, between two or three stops. Much will also depend on the behavior of the tires: I believe that the Mediums at lower temperatures than those in which we have lapped so far could reserve some surprises for us."

Kimi Raikkonen: “I'm quite satisfied with my qualifying, because until this morning I didn't feel completely at ease with the car, but the trust I placed in the means I had at my disposal was repaid by the result. We are growing in all areas, on the engine, data acquisition, electronics, and the new parts fitted to the car have improved my feeling with the front. We are certainly not yet where we would like to be, but I believe the direction is the right one, we have the people and the possibilities to continue growing. It's difficult to predict how the race will go tomorrow, because in the simulation carried out yesterday with the Medium tires I was in difficulty, while with the Soft the balance improved. We know we can't compete with the Mercedes, but today's result makes me more confident than in previous races and I will do my best to bring home a good result."

Pat Fry: “Here we expected to run on defense and see a greater gap with Mercedes, currently alone at the top of the standings. The characteristics of this track do not enhance the potential of our car and the long straights favor the teams that manage to obtain the highest top speeds. For drivers, completing the perfect lap in Sakhir is always difficult and today Fernando and Kimi found themselves struggling
against four teams separated by a few tenths. In a complicated qualifying for both of us, Kimi did a good lap, confirming the improvements we were looking for, while on Fernando's car we were unable to exploit the available power. As a result of the penalty given to Ricciardo, they will both start on the clean side tomorrow and we must try to take maximum advantage of this possibility. It promises to be a long and uphill race, in which the unknowns linked to reliability and consumption will play a very important role."