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Brazilian Felipe Massa set a fastest time of 1m35.340s on soft tires, some 45 minutes into the second free practice session of the Grand Prix of China which saw him end the day once again ahead of Ferrari teammate, Fernando Alonso who ranked third.
Despite his performance, the Ferrari driver said the day had not gone entirely to his liking due to the car's behaviour on medium tires.
“Today, I immediately had a good feeling in the car and even if at the start I was not completely happy with the performance of the medium compound and we were not as quick as our rivals, the times were good all the same,” said Massa.
Massa claimed the F138's handling on soft compounds improved its pace so drastically it was like driving a ‘completely different' car.
“When I fitted the softs,” he continued, “the car improved a lot and this meant I was able to set the fastest time of the day. It was impressive, like driving two completely different cars.”
Alonso was equally as enthusiastic after finishing third, but believes tires will once again play an important role in Ferraris chances for the weekend.
“By the end of the day, the overall feeling is positive,” said the double world champion after the session. “We worked well and on top of that, it's always great fun driving the Shanghai track.
Once again, tires will play a key role in this Grand Prix because of the high level of degradation over a long run.”
Tire degradation was also a concern voiced by the team's technical director Pat Fry who despite being impressed by the car's race pace, commented that tyre performance was an ‘unknown' factor and would leave the team with a lot of work to do ahead of qualifying and the race.
“The race pace from both F138s is interesting, but once again there is the unknown factor of tire performance,” he said. “The softs seem to degrade quite quickly, while the mediums offer better stability and last longer. Now we can expect a long night ahead of us to decide on the best combinations for qualifying and the race, with a lot of data to go through.”
Despite his performance, the Ferrari driver said the day had not gone entirely to his liking due to the car's behaviour on medium tires.
“Today, I immediately had a good feeling in the car and even if at the start I was not completely happy with the performance of the medium compound and we were not as quick as our rivals, the times were good all the same,” said Massa.
Massa claimed the F138's handling on soft compounds improved its pace so drastically it was like driving a ‘completely different' car.
“When I fitted the softs,” he continued, “the car improved a lot and this meant I was able to set the fastest time of the day. It was impressive, like driving two completely different cars.”
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| Felipe Massa, Ferrari F138, in China. (Photo: WRi2) |
Alonso was equally as enthusiastic after finishing third, but believes tires will once again play an important role in Ferraris chances for the weekend.
“By the end of the day, the overall feeling is positive,” said the double world champion after the session. “We worked well and on top of that, it's always great fun driving the Shanghai track.
Once again, tires will play a key role in this Grand Prix because of the high level of degradation over a long run.”
Tire degradation was also a concern voiced by the team's technical director Pat Fry who despite being impressed by the car's race pace, commented that tyre performance was an ‘unknown' factor and would leave the team with a lot of work to do ahead of qualifying and the race.
“The race pace from both F138s is interesting, but once again there is the unknown factor of tire performance,” he said. “The softs seem to degrade quite quickly, while the mediums offer better stability and last longer. Now we can expect a long night ahead of us to decide on the best combinations for qualifying and the race, with a lot of data to go through.”