Valencia, 22nd August 2009

Kimi Raikkonen was happy with qualifying on the third row of the grid in sixth spot, for tomorrow’s European Grand Prix. A quick look at the fuel loads of all the cars, which this year, the FIA publishes after Qualifying, reveals that the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro driver has a sensible amount of fuel on board, similar to the Brawns of Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button, in third and fifth places respectively. Pole position went to the winner of the last race in Hungary, Lewis Hamilton, with his McLaren-Mercedes team-mate Heikki Kovalainen making it an all-silver front row. It seems that Kimi is running a heavier fuel load than these two and the Red Bull of fourth placed Sebastian Vettel. This means the Ferrari driver will be hoping to use the advantage of KERS at the start to make up some places and then make the most of what looks like a good strategy.






Life was a bit tougher for the driver of the other F60: Luca Badoer has, as expected by the team, found it tough to get on the pace of F1 after such a long break from racing and he did not get past Q1 this afternoon. He will start his first ever Grand Prix at the wheel of a Ferrari from last spot. While Kimi is hoping to pick up a healthy number of points, the Italian will be using the 57 lap race as his longest test session of the weekend. Just getting to the finish will be tough as the temperatures and humidity here are much higher than last year and much higher than expected. But Luca feels he has no problems on that score. Michael Schumacher has been here all weekend, encouraging and helping his friend Luca and this afternoon, he was also looking after a special guest on the pit wall, legendary guitarist, and Ferrari enthusiast, Eric Clapton. Another sporting great spotted in the paddock was Spanish double World Rally Champion Carlos Sainz.