Friday analysis - are Ferrari destined to win again?

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With successive wins in 2006 and 2007, Ferrari arrive at Istanbul Park with an enviable track record at the Turkish circuit. And there were signs that their run of good fortune may well continue on Friday, with Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen topping the times in the morning and afternoon practice sessions respectively.

That said, with McLaren pushing the red cars hard and Red Bull coming on strong, there's still everything to play for ahead of qualifying on Saturday, with no guarantees that Ferrari are going to have it all their own way…

Ferrari
Kimi Raikkonen, 1m 30.732s, P20/1m 27.543s, P1
Felipe Massa, 1m 27.323s, P1/1m 27.682s, P3
Raikkonen’s dearth of laps in the morning transpired to be the result of a gearbox problem, but he made up for that by dominating the afternoon to claim the fastest time ahead of Hamilton and Massa. The Brazilian, who has won here for the past two years, said he had a positive day and that the track was fast. By the end of the morning, even without traction control, he had beaten his 2007 pole time by 0.006s on a track that was still slippery enough in places to provoke many spins during the course of the day.

McLaren
Lewis Hamilton, 1m 27.752s, P3/1m 27.579s, P2
Heikki Kovalainen, 1m 27.456s, P2/1m 27.954s, P5
Hamilton used only one set of tyres in the morning and admitted that on new rubber at the end of the afternoon session he made a small mistake which cost him time on his best lap. Otherwise, he was pleased with his day, as was Kovalainen, who returned in style after his nasty accident in the Spanish Grand Prix to set the second fastest time in the morning. His only problem was non-optimal brake temperature during his afternoon run on Bridgestone’s option tyre (the medium compound compared to the hard tyre brought along as the prime).

Red Bull
David Coulthard, 1m 30.340s, P17/1m 27.763s, P4
Mark Webber, 1m 30.088s, P16/1m 29.633s, P19
A mixed day, with Coulthard fourth in the afternoon but Webber putting his RB4 into the wall a third of the way through that session after he spun in Turn Six. The Scot said he was quite happy with his day’s work and with getting the front of the car biting well, while the Australian took his mistake 100 percent on the chin after loading the car up a little too much on Astroturf that was still a little too damp on the exit to the corner after the rain during the lunch break.

BMW Sauber
Robert Kubica, 1m 29.330s, P12/1m 28.431s, P6
Nick Heidfeld, 1m 29.024s, P7/1m 28.817s, P10
Kubica lost time in the morning with a very minor problem around the gearbox of his F1.08, and thus had to squeeze two session’s work into one in the afternoon. In his four runs he was dissatisfied with the balance, but tried several options which will be evaluated overnight in readiness for the final practice session on Saturday morning. Heidfeld said his main problem was not getting the tyres heated up quickly enough.

Toyota
Jarno Trulli, 1m 29.329s, P11/1m 28.619s, P7
Timo Glock, 1m 29.103s, P10/1m 28.849s, P12
Toyota reported no real problems as Trulli and Glock went through their usual tyre evaluation programmes, but the German had an off-course moment in Turn Four in the closing stages in the afternoon and damaged his TF108’s front wing.

Williams
Kazuki Nakajima, 1m 29.002s, P6/1m 28.664s, P8
Nico Rosberg, 1m 29.367s, P13/1m 28.907s, P13
Both Nakajima and Rosberg had uneventful sessions as they struggled to set up their FW30s. Rosberg set a faster time in the afternoon, 1m 28.351s, but had it disallowed by the stewards when it transpired he had missed the apex of Turn Ten while achieving it.

Renault
Fernando Alonso, 1m 28.284s, P4/1m 28.681s, P9
Nelson Piquet, 1m 29.082s, P9/1m 29.212s, P16
Neither driver reported any problems. Alonso said he was encouraged by Renault’s performance, which included the fourth-fastest lap in the morning, while Piquet said his day was ‘pretty normal’, and that he managed to improve his R28’s balance during the course of both sessions.

Honda
Jenson Button, 1m 28.919s, P5/1m 28.826s, P11
Rubens Barrichello, 1m 29.068s, P8/1m 29.024s, P15
Button said he was much happier with the performance of his RA108 in the afternoon after struggling with initial turn-in in the morning, while Barrichello was reasonably happy with the start to his record 257th Grand Prix outing. His car was well balanced from the start, but a change in the mechanical set-up sent it the opposite way to Button’s in the afternoon. Both drivers praised the ride quality on the smoother asphalt, after struggling with that in Spain.

Force India
Giancarlo Fisichella, 1m 29.811s, P15/1m 29.008s, P14
Adrian Sutil, 1m 29.756s, P14/1m 30.832s, P20
Fisichella was quite happy with the performance of his car in both sessions, but not with the three-place grid penalty that the stewards applied after he exited the pits in the morning against the red light. Sutil ran well in the morning, but lost the rest of the afternoon session following the red flag when his VJM01 developed a clutch problem.

Toro Rosso
Sebastian Vettel, 1m 30.426s, P19/1m 29.462s, P17
Sebastien Bourdais, 1m 30.388s, P18/1m 29.630s, P18
Still using the old interim STR2B, Vettel and Bourdais had uneventful days beyond a spin apiece. The latter, on his first visit to the track, loved Turn Eight but admitted that it was a case all day of learning how to get the most out of the tyres in the relatively cool conditions.

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As Ferrari’s Felipe Massa shoots for a hat-trick of wins at Istanbul Park, McLaren are better placed to frustrate him than they have been since Melbourne, with Heikki Kovalainen second and Lewis Hamilton third on the grid for Sunday’s Turkish Grand Prix.

But world champion Kimi Raikkonen isn’t far behind in fourth and BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica is there as usual within potential striking distance. On a circuit where overtaking is possible, we should be in for a great race…

Ferrari
Felipe Massa, 1m 27.617s, P1
Kimi Raikkonen, 1m 27.936s, P4
Massa was very happy with his first run in Q3, and just managed to improve it sufficiently in the second to stave off Kovalainen for pole position. It was his third in succession here, and on Sunday he shoots for a hat-trick in the race on a circuit he loves. Raikkonen was quickest in Q2, but admitted that he made mistakes on his second run in Q3 which cost him dearly. Like Kovalainen, he starts from the dirty side of the grid.

McLaren
Heikki Kovalainen, 1m 27.808s, P2
Lewis Hamilton, 1m 27.923s, P3
Kovalainen made the most of Bridgestone’s medium compound tyres in Q3 and went fast enough to clinch his first front-row grid slot and put Massa under pressure for the pole. Hamilton said he was really pleased with his MP4-23 in Q1, on the harder tyre, but felt that he struggled on the medium in Q2. He thus switched back to the harder rubber for Q3 and later admitted that it had been a mistake.

BMW Sauber
Robert Kubica, 1m 28.390s, P5
Nick Heidfeld, 1m 28.882s, P9
Having finished second to Raikkonen in Q2, Kubica admitted that he had expected a little more than fifth overall in Q3, but once it had been refuelled his F1.08 lost its balance a little and became more difficult to drive as he picked up a lot of understeer. Heidfeld said he was disappointed with ninth on his 31st birthday, but that the car felt better than it had in practice. His best lap was pretty good, until he made an error in the final sector which cost him three-tenths and a couple of grid places.

Red Bull
Mark Webber, 1m 28.417s, P6
David Coulthard, 1m 29.959s, P10
At last Red Bull got both their cars into the top 10, with Webber sixth and Coulthard 10th. The progress continues. The Australian believed he can score good points from sixth, even starting on the dirty side of the grid, while the Scot used all his medium tyres to get into Q3 and only had the harder rubber to run at the end. He did just one run to save fuel, and said that his RB4 was ‘very heavy’.

Renault
Fernando Alonso, 1m 28.422s, P7
Nelson Piquet, 1m 27.568s, P17
Once again Alonso made it easily into Q3 and said that seventh on the grid was more or less what he had expected, though he might have done a little better. Piquet did not look good as he failed to escape Q1 without being able to offer any particular reason why.

Toyota
Jarno Trulli, 1m 28.836s, P8
Timo Glock, 1m 27.806s, P15
Yet again Trulli put his TF108 in the top 10 quite comfortably, and starts eighth, but he was never fully satisfied with the set-up that he achieved and had trouble with both understeer and oversteer at times. Glock by contrast said he was really happy with his car, but his efforts were stymied by a front wheel problem which manifested itself in Q2 as he braked for Turn Eight.

Williams
Nico Rosberg, 1m 27.012s, P11
Kazuki Nakajima, 1m 27.547s, P16
Rosberg thought he had a good shot at getting through to Q3, but ultimately missed out by one place as he said there were a couple of set-up points that the team didn’t fully optimise. Once again, Nakajima looked good right up until qualifying, when he failed to get it together sufficiently to progress beyond Q1.

Honda
Rubens Barrichello, 1m 27.219s, P12
Jenson Button, 1m 27.219s, P13
Barrichello starts his record-breaking 257th race in 12th place, and said that Honda’s main problem is not the tyres or grip levels but basic balance. He struggled to make his tyres last well beyond the first and second sectors of the lap. Button said he had to be satisfied with 13th after struggling all session to get the RA108 working its tyres properly and couldn’t make it work well on the medium tyres in Q2.

Toro Rosso
Sebastian Vettel, 1m 27.412s, P14
Sebastien Bourdais, 1m 27.621s, P18
After a couple of races fighting for decent handling balance, Vettel felt he was finally making some progress as he lines up 14th for the STR2B’s final appearance. Bourdais blamed the Force India duo for his 18th best time, claiming that Sutil blocked him in Turn Three on his first Q1 run, and Fisichella in Turn Eight on the second.

Force India
Giancarlo Fisichella, 1m 27.807s, P19, starts P20
Adrian Sutil, 1m 28.325s, P20, starts P19
Fisichella was pretty happy with the balance of his VJM01, but of course dropped a place from 19th because of his indiscretion exiting the pits against the red light on Friday morning. Sutil said his car was much improved since final practice, but couldn’t get the best out of his tyres in his final Q1 run.

David Tremayne