Fernando Alonso spoke delightedly of his "special day" at the Bahrain Grand Prix, after taking victory in his first race for the Ferrari team, with the Spaniard leading home a 1-2 finish for the Italian team in the opening race of the season.
Alonso secured the 22nd victory of his career, and his first since the 2008 Japanese Grand Prix, in his first race for his new team, benefiting when Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull developed an exhaust problem.
And Alonso gushed in the post-race press conference that the win was the best way "to start the relationship" with his new team, dedicating the win to the Ferrari workers in Italy after the team completed a remarkable winter turnaround in their fortunes.
"A very special day for me," Alonso grinned in the press conference, "Coming back the top of the podium is always special but even more special with Ferrari. We have history behind the team and all the expectations a driver has when he drives for Ferrari.
"There is no better way to start the relationship. This is the best team in the world, we worked hard all winter, the guys did a very good job in winter testing."
He added that: "This first victory is dedicated to all the people in Italy, the mechanics here and president di Montezemolo. This result is very, very positive."
Alonso, however, was cautious about reading too much into the rest of the season from this one result, saying that it was just important to score "solid points" in the first few races.
"I think it is not important," he said when asked whether the win meant that Ferrari were the top team right now.
"I always say the same thing, the first three or four races of the championship are not crucial for anything, you just need some solid points for the team, to get used to the regulations, the tyres, the races themselves."
Second place man Felipe Massa, meanwhile, said that he was thrilled to return to the F1 podium in his first race since his season-curtailing injury at the 2009 Hungarian GP, thanking God for being here, and thanking everyone for their support.
"First of all I think it is fantastic to be here, so thanks a lot that everything is great," Massa rambled, "Being here with a competitive car and going through the whole race with good pace, so thanks to God I am fine and thanks to everybody who was supporting me in a difficult time."
He did add some frustration about his performance, saying that he had spent the race plagued by overheating issues.
"I started to have a problem in terms of temperature in the car and it made a lot of fuel consumption so I started to save fuel in the last 25-30 laps," he moaned, "There was nothing to do any more. We were lucky with the problems for Vettel to get past him and get some points - and lucky that [Lewis] Hamilton was not so fast at the end."
Lewis Hamilton, meanwhile, who ended third for McLaren, said that he may well have been able to keep up with the the frontrunning trio of the Ferraris and Vettel had he not got stuck behind Nico Rosberg's Mercedes early on.
"I had quite a good race, unfortunately I lost a bit of ground, locked up into Turn 4 and went wide, got in a bad position and Rosberg got past me," Hamilton yawned.
"I was then much faster but it's difficult to follow here and look after the tyres. If I was ahead of him maybe I would have been able to follow the train these guys [the Ferraris] were creating."
But he added that he was happy to start the season with a podium, and said that the team must now improve their pace compared to Ferrari and Red Bull.
"It is a strong result for me and the team," he grinned "It was more than we expected. We need to continue to push to keep up with these guys."
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
