Saturday: Ferrari promises to attack at the start

Fernando Alonso – 2nd and 5th:

The fifth place is good news after the difficult weekends we had at Silverstone and Nürburgring, and especially after seeing all the improvements we made compared to yesterday when our race pace left us with even more doubts. Today, we are more competitive thanks to the change in settings and a few modifications on the aerodynamic side, which we did to achieve more consistency rather than pure performance. Traction and corner entry have been improved, and now we need to closely examine the start to try to gain a few places, and once we’re ahead, the extra grip from being on the cleaner side of the track should help. Here, overtaking during the race is difficult, making it even more important to try to gain positions immediately, especially if we want to prevent Vettel from widening the gap from the start. The strategy will be very open, the tires are new for everyone, and the high track temperature means we must consider a strategy that can be modified at any time. The podium remains our goal, and I feel ready to fight for it, even though we know it won’t be easy with the tough competition among us.

Felipe Massa – 5th and 7th:

Today’s qualifications were extremely complicated and the results did not meet our expectations: Fernando and I did our best without making any mistakes, but we were not able to fight for the front positions and got the most we could. We know that Saturday is always our weak point, and for this reason, we need to stay focused on the race, which will not be easy, as the high temperatures will impact tire wear, the car, and us, the drivers. Overtaking is almost impossible here unless the car in front of us makes a mistake, but I hope to have a good race pace to gain some positions and bring home the few important points we need.