Fernando Alonso worked his magic from 19th on the grid (21st after the start, as he experienced a failed one) to 9th place with a couple of laps to go, only to experience an engine failure and record his first DNF of the season. However, throughout his 54 laps of action, he drove with a broken gearbox, as his clutch failed on him from the very formation lap.
Ferrari made all the wrong calls in qualifying also, when they decided to keep their drivers in the garage in the first part of Q1 while waiting for the track to dry out. The rain started to pour down heavier, however, and both Alonso and Massa failed to make it past Q1, settling for 19th and 21st respectively.
“Unfortunately this weekend was the worst weekend in terms of a global result - mainly for two main factors,” admitted team principal Stefano Domenicali, who insisted that his team needs to get back into competitive form immediately, as mistakes are unacceptable (especially like the ones made on Saturday).
“Reliability - which was unfortunately not good enough. But we cannot forget also that the bad result of this weekend was related to qualifying - because when you start from 19th and 21st, to be there is a miracle.”
“For sure what happened on Saturday was not acceptable - and we discussed it in the team. We don't have to take any risks, even if the other big teams did the same. It is a lesson learned for the group of people. We have a competitive package but it is never enough, and we need to make sure that when we bring the new parts onto the track, they will be reliable,” added the Ferrari principal.
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