Italian GP - Ferrari - RaceStarting third, Felipe Massa battled hard with Lewis Hamilton into the first turn today at Monza, but ten laps later was forced to retire from the event with a rear suspension problem. The failure to finish drops Massa to fourth in the championship,
23 points behind leader Hamilton.
Kimi Raikkonen made a good start from fifth on the grid to run fourth before Massa retired. Running a one-stop strategy and starting on the softer tyre, Raikkonen was later able to briefly run second before Hamilton made an aggressive pass to re-take the position. Raikkonen finished third, 20 seconds behind Hamilton.
Raikkonen is now third in the standings with 74 points, 18 behind Hamilton. The team remains second in the constructors' championship, 23 behind their rivals.
Kimi Raikkonen“This was definitely a tough race for me because of the pain I felt in my neck after yesterday’s accident, which was bad enough to make it hard for me to hold my head steady under braking. Having said that, today we were not really quick enough. We knew it would not be an easy weekend, as we had already realized that in last week’s test, with Friday and yesterday confirming it. The car was not bad in the first stint but then we were not strong enough. Hamilton’s overtaking move? I tried to defend my position but he was definitely quicker than me. In the final stages I slowed to save the car for the next race. We were keen to win in front of our fans but we did not manage it. At least I got onto the podium.
Now we tackle another fascinating circuit at Spa-Francorchamps where I think that we and our closest rivals will be more evenly matched.”
Felipe Massa
“I am very disappointed. It’s horrible to see your chances go in the early stages because of a reliability problem. There was something not working with the rear suspension: coming into Ascari I could feel a problem under braking and came into the pits, thinking it might be due to a puncture. However, once the tyres were changed that was still undriveable and I had to retire. We must tackle the coming races with the same spirit. Here we were competitive and I think that will be the same in the near future. This is very disappointing but these things happen in racing.”
Luca Baldisserri
“We are very disappointed and there is no use in denying it. We tried to change things around by putting Kimi on a different strategy, but in general we were not quick enough. Felipe was unable to show what he might have done, forced to retire after just a handful of laps because of a mechanical problem on the rear suspension, the causes of which we now have to find. It is very disappointing not to have given our fans and our colleagues who were in Monza today what they wanted. We hope to turn things around in the next races, starting with the Belgian Grand Prix next week.”
Jean Todt
"We are very disappointed at having failed to secure a better result than just this third place for Kimi in our home Grand Prix. Felipe was forced to retire in the early stages because of a mechanical problem with the rear suspension, the cause of which has yet to be analysed. With Kimi, we ran a different strategy to our rivals but we did not have enough speed to get ahead of them. Clearly the situation in both championships is now more difficult. We will aim to do our best in the four remaining races, starting next weekend in Spa-Francorchamps.”
Source Ferrari
