> Ferrari caught out by track conditions

Ferrari duo Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen said unexpectedly slippery track conditions took the fine edge off their cars’ handling on the opening day of practice at Barcelona.

The Maranello squad set the pace for most of last week’s test at the Catalunya circuit – but both drivers found their cars much less well behaved in the pair of Friday practice sessions.

“It is difficult to assess the situation after these three hours of practice,” said Massa, who was fourth fastest in the afternoon.

“The track conditions are definitely very different to these we had in testing last week.

“But all in all, I am reasonably happy with the work we have done today.

“Just how happy I will be, we will only know on Sunday after the race!”

Kimi Raikkonen was a competitive third fastest in the morning but slipped to sixth in the afternoon, more than 0.8s behind pacesetter Fernando Alonso, with whom he shares the world championship lead.

The Finn echoed his team-mate’s comments.

“Track conditions were very different to those we found when testing here last week and it is definitely more slippery,” he said.

“So we are struggling a bit to find the right balance of the car.

“All our work has centred on finding the best race set-up on the car.

“We will have to study the data carefully to improve, both for qualifying and for Sunday’s race.”

Strategist Luca Baldisserri added: “We did not have any problems but we still have to find the ideal set-up for the F2007, especially in terms of its performance over a single lap.

“But we are confident enough about our chances on Sunday.”

source: itv-f1