Ferrari left the Spanish port city of Valencia not sure if they should laugh or cry after Felipe Massa’s victory in Sunday’s European Grand Prix.
Brazilian Massa’s perfect win was marred for the Italian team by defending champion Finn Kimi Raikkonen’s engine failure and retirement.
This meant they had suffered two engine blow-ups in two races and lost a possible 13 points in all.
It also meant that even when he felt ill, championship leading Briton Lewis Hamilton could enlarge his cushion in the drivers’ title race while cruising home second with a stiff neck.
”I felt bad, it was tough, but we were aiming to finish second and I did it,” he said afterwards while team chief Ron Dennis praised his efforts.
”It was not easy for Lewis, but he did the job.”
Ferrari were left with a bitter-sweet taste in their mouths.
Team chief Stefano Domenicali said: ”Again, we suffered with a reliability problem, this time on Kimi’s car, which lost us precious points.
”Now we have to find out what happened in yet another engine failure and then decide how to react.
”Clearly what happened is serious and we will have to do all in our power to make up for the ground we have lost through reliability problems in the coming races.”
Norbert Haug, the Merecedes-Benz sporting chief, said: ”The most positive element for us was that the boxes containing our spare parts were kept closed all weekend.
”We didn’t need to fit a single replacement part throughout a race weekend that everyone thought would be full of crashes.
”Now we can work hard for the final third of the season, which begins with the back-to-back races at Spa and Monza, two particularly challenging circuits that will put maximum stress on the engines.”
That, and Hamilton’s illness and neck problems, ended up giving McLaren a points haul that enabled them to cut Ferrari’s lead in the constructors’ championship and see the 23-year-old Englishman extend his advantage in the drivers’ series.
Hamilton now has 70 points to Massa’s 64 and Ferrari have 121 to McLaren’s 113. — Sapa-AFP