Sport - Racing : Motor

Ferrari is a relieved team

SEPANG (Malaysia): A sense of relief pervades the Ferrari camp.

“Finally, a trouble free-day!” said Luca Baldisserri, Ferrari’s head of track operations, after Saturday’s qualifying session in which the team’s two drivers finished first and second.

It was a welcome result after Ferrari’s disastrous start of the Grand Prix season in Melbourne when both drivers, Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen, crashed out with engine trouble.

“Car performance was good and it worked well as can be seen from the result,” said Baldisserri.

The threat of rain hangs over Sunday’s race.

“We expect a very difficult race tomorrow because of the weather, which will be tough on cars and rivers,” he said.

This is the seventh pole from 10 starts at the Sepang circuit for Ferrari, and brings the team’s total to 196.

Massa took the 10th pole of his career and the second one in a row at Sepang.

“Today we worked well and up to our usual standards, and the results prove it,” said Stefano Domenicali, the team principal.

“We have now made just a small step in terms of the GP with the longer one still needed to be accomplished in tomorrow’s race.” — AP

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