F1 Fanatic

Both Ferrari drivers were unhappy after the Canadian Grand Prix.

Ferrari drivers’ lap times throughout the race (in seconds):

Fernando Alonso, Felipe Massa, Montreal, 2011

Fernando Alonso

Alonso was quickest in the disrupted second practice session. He snatched second on the grid from his team mate at the end of qualifying by less than two hundredths of a second.

He made a concerted effort to pass Sebastian Vettel at the start of the race, but after that dropped back from the Red Bull.

Alonso took the plunge and switched to intermediate tyres on lap 17, while Massa did not. Although he picked off Nick Heidfeld on his first lap out of the pits, two laps later he was back in for wets as the rain returned.

When the race resumed after the two-hour interruption, Alonso was down in ninth.

He pitted for intermediates again on lap 36, losing more time having to queue behind his team mate, and came out in front of Jenson Button.

Button went down the inside of him at turn three and the pair banged wheels, sending Alonso spinning onto a kerb where his Ferrari became stuck, ending his race.

Afterwards he said: “it’s a real shame because today we really had a good race pace but we were unlucky: that’s not a feeling I have, it’s a fact”.

Fernando Alonso 2011 form guide

Felipe Massa

Out-qualified by Alonso again but was much closer than usual.

He kept pace with Alonso at the start of the race as well, lapping within a second of him.

Massa did not pit for intermediate tyres early on, but did take a second set of wets which dropped him behind Kamui Kobayashi.

Repeated attempts to pass the Sauber finally bore fruit on lap 51. But Michael Schumacher got past them both, leaving Massa in third.

He pitted for slicks on the next lap but spun the car on his out-lap, damaging his front wing and having to pit again.

Now down in 12th, Massa worked his way up into the points. In the final six laps he passed Jaime Alguersuari and Nico Rosberg to take seventh.

Accelerating out of the final corner he used his DRS to beat Kobayashi to the line by 0.045s to claim sixth. Even so, he was unhappy with the result:

“I can’t draw much satisfaction from this sixth place, given the potential we had here.

“My chances of finishing on the podium and also of fighting for the win given how things went, just evaporated when I was passing [Narain] Karthikeyan . He was going very slowly on the dry line but then, as I was passing him on the wet, he accelerated and I lost control of the car ending up in the wall.

“Thanks to the next safety car, I was able to catch up to the pack and then, in the end, I passed a few cars to get as high as sixth. I am angry, there is no point denying it”.

Felipe Massa 2011 form guide

2011 Canadian Grand Prix

• Technical review: 2011 Canadian Grand Prix
• 2011 Canadian Grand Prix: complete race weekend review
• Vote for your Canadian GP driver of the weekend
• McLaren: Button makes amends for collision with stunning win
• Red Bull: Vettel finally cracks under pressure
• Ferrari: Alonso rues ‘bad luck’ after retiring
• Mercedes: Schumacher misses out on podium
• Sauber: Kobayashi slips from second to seventh
• Renault: Heidfeld crash leaves Petrov fifth
• Williams: Barrichello in points, Maldonado crashes

Image © Ferrari spa/Ercole Colombo