Ferrari were Hoping for More
Ferrari could not hide their disappointment after qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix as they failed to live up to their promising pace from practice
Rubens Barrichello could manage no better than ninth place after struggling with the handling of his car, while Michael Schumacher's late-session run was hit by rain that left him down in 14 th.
And after Schumacher had been one of the pace-setters in morning practice, Ferrari sporting director Jean Todt admitted the team had fallen short of expectations.
"We are very disappointed with the outcome of qualifying," he said. "After this morning's free practice, we thought we would be fighting for places on the front two rows, but unfortunately, we find ourselves with one driver in ninth place and the other in 14th."
Schumacher could not believe the misfortune at having gone out onto the track on intermediate tyres just as the weather got worse.
"The rain arrived just as I had to start my run, which meant it was too late to fit the extreme wet tyres, so basically, all I could do was swim for home," said the German, who had crashed in the morning's free practice session.
"In fact, in the first sector the rain was not so heavy that it would have justified the extreme rain tyres, although it certainly was on the rest of the lap. I think it is fair for to claim I was hit with bad luck today. This morning, we were very competitive, so in my mind, I was aiming for pole position."
Barrichello added: "There are two ways of looking at my qualifying. On the positive side, I was probably one of the last guys to make my run when the track was a little bit better with not too much rain.
"However, on the negative side, it meant that we were out on track in conditions where our package does not perform as well as it did in the past. On normal wets, the balance of the car felt a lot worse than it did in the morning when we ran with extreme wets."
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