Alonso says Ferrari's race pace better
Date published : 17 Apr 2010 - 09:09:27
Fernando Alonso believes Ferrari can currently do no more with its car in qualifying after he again qualified behind the dominant Red Bulls in third but believes it will be a stronger proposition in the race.
Apart from its qualifying disaster last time out in Malaysia when both its cars dropped out in Q1, Ferrari has been RBR's closest challenger in qualifying but has yet to get ahead with Felipe Massa claiming its only front-row start at the season-opener in Bahrain.
Alonso has now qualified third in three of the four races so far this season and, after qualifying 0.355s off pole in China on Saturday, admits he is getting the most out of the F10 over a single lap.
I think once again this is the maximum of our potential in quali, he said.
We did it in Bahrain, Australia and here with three times third on the grid.
In Malaysia we did a mistake in Q1, but in normal conditions I think this is the maximum we can do at the moment.
The Spaniard, who sits second to team-mate Felipe Massa in the drivers' standings but starts four places ahead of the Brazilian here, again expects Ferrari's pace relative to the Red Bull's to improve over the race distance.
We know that the race pace is a little bit better for us and we feel more comfortable always with more fuel in the car on the longer runs, Alonso added.
However, although Red Bull has shown itself to be as quick, if not quicker, than Ferrari in races so far in 2010, Alonso says he still thinks his best chance of winning will come in a dry race.
Asked if he hopes the forecast for rain on Sunday proves to be correct, he said: No, I prefer [it to be] dry.
But if it rains it is the same for everybody and always wet qualifyings are a little bit more difficult because depending on which moment of the track you get you can improve like three or four seconds.
But in race situations you are always in the same lap as everybody so it is the same for all of us.
So if it rains tomorrow we will be fine, it will be interesting to see how the race develops, but as I said with the potential of our car and how good it normally performs in the race pace I think a dry situation will be more normal for us.
