Sunday: Alonso Brings a Smile to Ferrari
Following an aggressive race, which he is accustomed to, Fernando Alonso brings another podium to Ferrari. Felipe Massa, still engaged in a battle with Lewis Hamilton, completes the good result for the Scuderia with a solid 7th place.
Fernando Alonso – 2nd
Congratulations to Sébastien! Winning two world titles at his age, in a season where he gave everything in qualifying, races, and in all other areas, so perfectly, is incredible, and he truly deserves his title. For our part, we can only try our best to beat him next year. Today, we did our best and were not far from winning the race. We know that in qualifying we are behind the Red Bull and McLaren, but in the race, when there are variables like tire degradation, we can exploit certain opportunities. This podium is a great motivation for the last four races of the season. It was a fun race, where strategy was very important. Unlike the last races, today we had a pretty good pace to fight for victory. We will try again in Korea, where we can go with heads held high: we will try to win, or at least get on the podium again.
Felipe Massa – 7th
Once again, I finish the race with a very bitter taste in my mouth. Today, our pace was good enough to finish on the podium, as Fernando demonstrated, but I’m here to comment on a seventh place… It’s unfortunate. The contact with Hamilton? My car was damaged by that collision: when I looked at the scene after the race, I saw that a deflector had come loose. I think the scene speaks for itself: he was struggling with his tires and I was almost alongside him, and without reason, he changed his line and hit me. I’ll let you judge… There’s no point in me saying more about it. However, I would like to congratulate Sebastian Vettel: he’s a great guy and he deserves this title. I’m very happy for him.
Stefano Domenicali – Team Principal
Before anything else, on behalf of the Scuderia, I want to congratulate Sebastian Vettel on his second title. He had an incredible season, and this fantastic result is well deserved! As for us, I don’t think it’s inappropriate if, for the second consecutive time, I use the adjective amazing, this time to describe Fernando’s race today. He is always on the attack and was very close to a victory, which would have been incredible, given our performances two weeks ago in Singapore. All these changes in performance from one race to the next show that it’s impossible to predict the behavior of the tires from one track to another. Felipe also had a very good race, at least until the contact with Hamilton set him back. There are still four races left this season, in which we will do everything possible to achieve the goals that are still within our reach. Namely, winning again, securing second place for Fernando in the drivers’ standings, and learning as much as possible from this car with 2012 in mind.
