Mar 29
Felipe Massa believes it will be difficult for Ferrari to catch Brawn GP after the former Honda team scored a resounding one-two in the opening race of the Formula 1 season in Australia.
The Brazilian, who was forced to retire from 11th position after struggling through the race with a compromised strategy, said that it would not be the work of a moment to bridge the gap to Brawn.
“We need to improve very quickly the car,” said the 2008 runner-up.
“But in my experience when we see a car that is one second in front, to improve one second from one day to another is very difficult.
“I don’t know if it is possible,” he added. “When you are three or four tenths behind it is always possible, but if it is a second then it is quite difficult.”
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Mar 29
Q. What went wrong with your car?
Felipe Massa: I think it was the power steering. I’m not so sure because they are checking the car. Just suddenly the car was pushing to the right and I couldn’t drive straight anymore.
Q. What would have been possible without the problems you had?
FM: Well if you take the bad strategy we did… I mean the tyres were a bit of a risk, but in these conditions sometimes a risk can be good. But after five laps the soft tyres did not work anymore, so we stopped much earlier than we were supposed to. And then we chose one car on three stops and one car on two stops.
I was the unlucky guy to go on three stops. It destroyed completely my strategy because we had a safety car straight away, so I had eight laps after the safety car which was not enough to create a reasonable gap to fight on the three-stops.
But even if you take into consideration the bad strategy, I was just behind Hamilton and he finished fourth, so I was able to finish in the good points, and then I had a problem with the car.
Q. Are you surprised about the result?
FM: No. I was surprised in Barcelona, not here.
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Mar 29
Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello gave Brawn GP a stunning debut one-two in the dramatic season-opening Australian Grand Prix, which finished behind the safety car after Sebastian Vettel and Robert Kubica tangled while fighting for second.
Button controlled the race from the outset, while Barrichello had to recover from a poor start and two collisions – only gaining second thanks to the late crash.
Tail-end starters Jarno Trulli (Toyota), Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) and Timo Glock (Toyota) also benefited from the incident to emerge in surprise third, fourth and fifth places.
While Button surged off the line into a clear lead at the start, his team-mate Barrichello got away extremely slowly after triggering the anti-stall system, and was in the lower reaches of the top ten by the first corner.
In his eagerness to recover the lost ground, Barrichello managed to tangle with both Mark Webber’s Red Bull and Nick Heidfeld’s BMW, leaving the latter with a puncture and causing Webber to spin into Kovalainen – who Barrichello felt had initially triggered the incident by tapping him from behind.
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Mar 29
The Australian Grand Prix
Albert Park, Melbourne, Australia;
58 laps; 307.574km;
Weather: Sunny.
Classified:
Pos Driver Team Time
1. Button Brawn GP (B) 1h34:15.784
2. Barrichello Brawn GP (B) + 0.807
3. Trulli Toyota (B) + 1.604
4. Glock Toyota (B) + 4.435
5. Alonso Renault (B) + 4.879
6. Rosberg Williams-Toyota (B) + 5.722
7. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) + 6.004
8. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) + 6.298
9. Sutil Force India-Ferrari (B) + 6.335
10. Heidfeld BMW Sauber (B) + 7.085
11. Fisichella Force India-Ferrari (B) + 7.374
12. Webber Red Bull-Renault (B) + 1 lap
13. Vettel Red Bull-Renault (B) + 2 laps
14. Kubica BMW Sauber (B) + 3 laps
15. Raikkonen Ferrari (B) + 3 laps
Fastest lap: Rosberg, 1:27.706
Not classified/retirements:
Driver Team On lap
Massa Ferrari (B) 46
Piquet Renault (B) 25
Nakajima Williams-Toyota (B) 18
Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1
Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes (B) DSQ
Mar 28
Felipe Massa reckons Brawn GP can secure the championship early in the season if it can continue to show the kind of form it used to dominate qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix.
“Yes,” Massa said when asked in Brawn was in a class of its own.
“If they carry on like that, they’ll win the championship in the middle of the year.”
Jenson Button grabbed pole position for the race, with team-mate Rubens Barrichello securing a front row lockout for the British squad.
Ferrari driver Massa had to settle for a dissapointing seventh position, nearly a second off Button’s pace.
“We always expected a little bit better, but not a lot,” added Massa. “We expected a tight qualifying. This morning I thought top five would have been possible, but very difficult. But it was not possible.
“Anyway, if you see the difference between the third and myself is quite small, so it means we need to see the fuel levels. But anyway, it was a big difference to the guys in front.”
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Mar 28
Pos Driver Team Q1 Q2 Q3 Laps
1. Button Brawn-Mercedes (B) 1:25.211 1:24.855 1:26.202 19
2. Barrichello Brawn-Mercedes (B) 1:25.006 1:24.783 1:26.505 21
3. Vettel Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:25.938 1:25.121 1:26.830 21
4. Kubica BMW-Sauber (B) 1:25.922 1:25.152 1:26.914 19
5. Rosberg Williams-Toyota (B) 1:25.846 1:25.123 1:26.973 21
6. Glock Toyota (B) 1:25.499 1:25.281 1:26.975 19
7. Massa Ferrari (B) 1:25.844 1:25.319 1:27.033 21
8. Trulli Toyota (B) 1:26.194 1:25.265 1:27.127 20
9. Raikkonen Ferrari (B) 1:25.899 1:25.380 1:27.163 21
10. Webber Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:25.427 1:25.241 1:27.246 20
11. Heidfeld BMW-Sauber (B) 1:25.827 1:25.504 14
12. Alonso Renault (B) 1:26.026 1:25.605 12
13. Nakajima Williams-Toyota (B) 1:26.074 1:25.607 16
14. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:26.184 1:25.726 15
15. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:26.454 no time 5
16. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:26.503 10
17. Piquet Renault (B) 1:26.598 12
18. Fisichella Force India-Mercedes (B) 1:26.677 10
19. Sutil Force India-Mercedes (B) 1:26.742 9
20. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:26.964 10
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