(from autosport) Felipe Massa ended this week's test at Hockenheim with the fastest time on Thursday, although Jenson Button was the surprise of the day as he ended it second quickest overall. Massa took over the testing duties from Kimi Raikkonen to finish Ferrari's testing programme as the team bid to move on from their British Grand Prix disappointment. And the Brazilian was the only driver to get under the one minute 15 seconds barriers as he set a best time of 1:14.989 seconds. "It was a good day's work," said Massa. "We did a lot of kilometres and I have to say the car felt well balanced. This can only mean that we should also be competitive at this track, which is also the case for our main rivals." Button evaluated new aerodynamic updates on his Honda Racing RA108 to set the second fastest time, just 0.092 seconds behind Massa. Heikki Kovalainen was third quickest for McLaren, ahead of Mark Webber in the Red Bull Racing car and Scuderia Toro Rosso's Sebastian Vettel. Giancarlo Fisichella brought a red flag out with a crash in his Force India at the Sachskurve in the afternoon, while Kazuki Nakajima also forced a stoppage in the morning when he stopped on track with a mechanical problem. "It was a bit frustrating we could not do more running," said Fisichella. "In the morning we had the technical problem and had to stop for some time, then in the afternoon I had an accident. "The rear of the car went away and I just lost control through the stadium complex. The car went across the road and there's not much run off area there so I went into the wall. I'm fine, but the car was quite badly damaged. "The guys did a good job to get it out again for the last 30 minutes. Overall we are making some small improvements and moving forward. We will have to see how they work next weekend." The other red flag of the day was caused by Fernando Alonso, whose Renault stopped on track at 16:35. As well as trying out their car developments and set-ups, the drivers were also able to practice starts during a special lunchtime extension. Today's times: Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Massa Ferrari (B) 1:14.989 109 2. Button Honda (B) 1:15.081 121 3. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:15.289 123 4. Webber Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:15.378 118 5. Vettel Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:15.556 115 6. Alonso Renault (B) 1:15.593 119 7. Nakajima Williams-Toyota (B) 1:15.759 118 8. Kubica BMW-Sauber (B) 1:15.869 107 9. Trulli Toyota (B) 1:16.065 129 10. Fisichella Force India-Ferrari (B) 1:16.113 74
I dunno how many times I've said that Massa could well be the fastest driver in F1 when he's the only one on the circuit. Unfortunately for him, when there are major hurdles in the form of other drivers and cars doing a thing called "racing", he comes undone. It's a touchy subject but its a thing called racecraft. The same thing that everyone lauds Kimi for. With kimi trying like hell to improve his qualifying mindset, it will definitely be interesting to see how Massa counters. He's doing quite a bit better than i expected this season, though he's been relatively on the up side of Ferrari's ****ty luck I must say.
This is an *excellent* metric of driver skill and ability. I always figured Nakajima was better than Raikkonen! Now I know it to be true!
And just for the record, yesterday's time: 1. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren, 1:14.872 But you know what? It's friggen testing! It is meaningless. But I'm glad Ron enjoyed Massa's "pole".
There was a statistic mentioned recently that Massa made the most on-track passes for position of all last year. So the facts don't support your opinion about Massa's race craft. He also had his share of Ferrari screw ups or other bad luck, like the refueling rig problem in Canada. But Andreas is right that this is just testing. Most important is that Massa did well and was satisfied with the programme and didn't have problems. Forza Ferrari!
If you're given the fastest car, getting around people isn't much of a problem. And that statistic needs to be broadened because if you are given 800 chances to pass, and you pull off 200 passes, that's still a high number. The statistic you would report is Massa passed 200 people for position last season. Is there any statistic that follows little things like driving off the course repeatedly (like at Spa) while trying to push real hard? Or number of times driver error has forced a spin? Or number of laps spent stuck behind a slower car? I mean, Massa put himself in positions (behind) to pass a lot of people... so what % was actually made? Don't just give me the end result. Would you consider Schumacher crap because he never passed anyone all those races he just dominated the field?
Not too sure about that. It's very difficult to pass in F1. He wasn't passing backmarkers. He was racing them. We've seen many times that someone can be quicker by 2 seconds a lap and thus gaining rapidly but then getting stuck behind a much slower car. Correct me if I'm wrong but as far as I understood the statistics said he made those passes, not just putting himself in a position to pass. Ofcourse I don't consider Schumacher crap but he was on another level. I don't see Massa winning 7 WDCs but he isn't crap.
What I mean is if your team mate is on the front row, and you are behind some "lesser" cars because of one reason or another, you'll potentially have more "passes" than your team mate, although he may win every race. Of course this is not the same case, I'm just talking extremes to say why a high # of passes isn't what is going to change my mind about Massa's racecraft, or lack thereof. For instance, Lewis is an absolutely amazing driver. Superb car control. But most of his passes are dirty hacks into the other driver's line. Very "kartish". I rate his racecraft not so great as well because while his control is very high (though prone to stupid mistakes from frustration) his "ethics" or tactics on the track surely don't sit well with other drivers. I know I might be in the minority here on this site, but a lot of people agree with me (not just here) and those who do are or were racers or have racing experience. What I rate very highly is what drivers are capable of when given lesser equipment. Kimi at Sauber. Alonso at Renault. Kubica at BMW. I want to see Lewis when McLaren are no longer at the top of the field. Is he going to be so blindly loyal when he's fighting for 8th?
LOL: You just described my driving style on PS3 "F1 Championship edition". Very fast, but a total hack when it comes to passing and tend to do stupid mistakes out of frustration when I end up in the midfield after fuel stops. Sorry for throwing that in here, just couldn't resist.
