Saturday: Ferrari limits the damage once again

The Scuderia Ferrari is trying to limit the damage as best as it can, particularly with Räikkönen and his sixth place during the qualifying in Spa, to maintain their third place in the Constructors’ Championship and, in doing so, preserve their reputation as a top team.

However, Badoer had a bad day at Spa, as the Italian, who had improved during the last free practice session, will once again start at the back of the grid after a rather embarrassing end to the qualifying session in the Combes corner barriers.

Luca Badoer – 18th and 20th :

« I am not happy because this morning, at the end of free practice, I had hoped to make it into Q2. Unfortunately, partly due to traffic and partly due to a few small issues, I didn’t manage to complete a perfect lap. I was planning to do it during my last run, but there was the incident with Vettel, which sent me off the track and ended my qualifying. I’ve made another step forward in terms of performance, but it’s still not enough. For me, the most difficult thing is getting into a good rhythm and finding the car’s limits. Unfortunately, there is no possibility of doing tests to allow me to improve. I’m sure that tomorrow, I will be more competitive than during the Valencia race. I will do everything I can. »

Kimi Räikkönen – 11th and 6th:

Of course, I would have preferred to start higher on the grid, but I think we did our best today. We knew it would be difficult to be at the front, but nonetheless, it’s a good position, especially since the gaps between the leading pack are quite tight. With more fuel on board, the car performs better than on a light load, and this was the case again in this qualifying session. Such an unusual grid makes it even more difficult to make predictions for tomorrow, so we will have to make the most of all the opportunities that arise tomorrow. The final result will largely depend on the first two corners after the start. The fact that the car behaves differently in different sections of the track can be explained by the lack of aerodynamic downforce we have this season.

Stefano Domenicali – Team Director:

« We can certainly say that the starting grid order is unexpected. As we’ve seen several times already this season, the hierarchy between teams can really change abruptly from one race to another. For our part, we would have liked to be a bit further ahead with Kimi, but still, we are in a position that will allow us to fight for the podium, especially when looking at the F60’s performance over a long run. As for Luca, once again, we can see an improvement in his performance, but unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to avoid ending up last on the grid once more. »