Ferrari have vowed to bounce back after a disastrous Singapore Grand Prix saw Felipe Massa lose ground on Lewis Hamilton in the title race and Kimi Raikkonen crash out of contention.
“A black day, there’s little else to say,” despondent Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali said after Renault’s Fernando Alonso won the inaugural night race, with Nico Rosberg second and Hamilton third.
“We had the potential to finish first and second but we didn’t even pick up a point. We are very disappointed, but that doesn’t mean we are downtrodden,” Domenicali said. “We have always shown our ability to react, especially at the most difficult times, and we will do it again this time.”
PHOTO: EPA
Massa was leading Hamilton after 15 laps when he came into the pits and was given the green light to leave with the fuel hose still attached to his car.
The embarrassing blunder left him sitting in his Ferrari at the end of the pit lane as the crew frantically ran after him and managed to pull the hose free.
It cost him a drive-through penalty and he rejoined the race in 18th place, ending any hope he had of making the points.
Massa finished 13th to Hamilton’s third, leaving him seven points behind his rival with three races left.
To make matters worse, defending world champion Kimi Raikkonen failed to finish after ramming his car into the barriers with just four laps left when he was fifth.
The Finn is 27 points adrift of the Briton and conceded he was now out of title contention.
The failure to score points left Ferrari one point behind McLaren in the constructors’ championship.
But Domenicali insisted all was not lost as they prepare for the Japan Grand Prix at Fuji next Sunday.
“The situation in the two championships has become more complicated but there are still three races to go and a lot of points up for grabs,” he said. “We know what we have to do to reach our objectives. The first part of the race showed that our car here was the quickest on track. We must look ahead and prepare ourselves as well as possible for the remaining three races.”
With Raikkonen out of the hunt, barring major hiccups, the only other driver with a realistic chance of catching Hamilton and Massa is BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica on 64 points.
Hamilton was delighted to pick up points while Massa and Raikkonen foundered but insisted he was not getting ahead of himself with all still to race for.
“I honestly can’t complain. As I said, it was just a bit unfortunate to be stuck in traffic,” Hamilton said, after being held up by a slow David Coulthard in his Red Bull.
“Nevertheless, to have a podium finish in the first Singapore night race is a great result and good points so I really can’t complain. I’m quite happy with seven points,” he said. “Moving forward I think we approach it the same as we have this weekend and definitely don’t get ahead of ourselves because, as you can see, lots of things can happen, so we just focus on doing a solid job, scoring more points.”
Following Japan, the Grand Prix circuit moves to China before ending the season in Brazil.
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