Ferrari, a good qualification for Alonso and Massa in Korea

A competitive Ferrari fought to the end for the front rows in qualifying for the Korean Grand Prix. At the end of three hotly contested sessions, Fernando Alonso achieved the fourth fastest time and will find himself immediately ahead of his teammate Felipe Massa on the grid, author of the sixth overall performance in Q3.

In the first part of the session Fernando used two sets of tyres, the first Soft and the second Supersoft, unlike Felipe, who only mounted one set of Primes. At the first attempt in Q2, Fernando kept the same Option set used previously while Felipe used his first set of new Supersofts. Having both gone out for the second time in Q2 with the second set of Options available, tire management in Q3 was the same for the two Ferrari drivers: first attempt with freshly used tires and second with the third set of new Options.

“We have shown that we can fight for the very front rows, which is a positive sign, especially if we look at the gaps from pole position” commented Stefano Domenicali. “Compared to the two previous races the gap has narrowed but it is clear that our objective is to give our drivers the best car. It was a very intense hour of official testing, not easy to manage because the performances between the various teams were very close to each other. A car in the second row and one in the third represents a good balance and puts us in a position to be able to have our say in the race tomorrow afternoon. Usually, we have seen that the F2012 proves to be more competitive on Sunday than on Saturday: let's hope that is the case this time too! We will have to be perfect in everything: strategy, work in the pits, reliability. Then, tomorrow afternoon, we'll do the math."

“We were competitive throughout qualifying but, perhaps, we weren't able to exploit 100% of the potential available” added Pat Fry. “It's clear that when you get to Q3 with only a set of new Options you pay a price which, however small, is decisive especially when the grid is so tight. With hindsight it is always easy to say that we should have done this or that differently but when you have to make decisions in a few seconds you have to keep all eventualities in mind because the risk of making mistakes out of simple presumption is always around the corner. Having said that, it was seen that the F2012 was more competitive on this track than it had been in Suzuka in qualifying: it means that, given that we have not introduced major technical changes, we have managed to develop a good car for our pilots. A very interesting race awaits us tomorrow, in which tire performance will play an important role. From what we saw yesterday, our race pace seems to be quite good but we will have to see how it goes tomorrow. Reliability, as always, will be the absolute priority."