We are better in the race - Massa

Last year, the European GP took place here in May and everyone was worried about the threat of bad weather up in the mountains. There was a heatwave! This year, the event takes place in July and Felipe Massa had to avoid the rain drops to come to the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro media motorhome to talk to the press this afternoon, where he launched straight into his thoughts for the coming weekend.

"I am confident we have a very good package as we have seen from the last two races," maintained the Brazilian driver. As for the relative merits of the Ferrari car, which has won the last two grands prix and that of the team's main rivals, Massa said, "if I have to compare the F2007 with the McLaren, maybe our strong point is that we are better in the race, while maybe they have a slight edge in qualifying. But of course, these things can change and I hope that we can improve our qualifying while still staying strongest in the races! The competition between us is very close, so I hope we can maybe reach a position where we are consistently quicker than them. That is what we are working for."

Therefore if qualifying might be the toughest part of the weekend for the Ferrari man, how does he see things going on Saturday afternoon? "Qualifying is important here at this track," he confirmed. "The whole first sector of the track has a lot of slow corners where you can lose a lot of time if you make a mistake. Also in the final sector, with its chicane, it can be tricky."

On the positive side, Massa reckons the car is still improving. "The Spa test went very well for us and I think the car was even better there than it was at Silverstone." Asked about the "spy" matter which has used up so much ink recently, Massa was brief and to the point. "I don't want to discuss it, because for sure it is not a nice thing and I prefer to concentrate on my racing."

We are now past the halfway point in this shorter than usual, seventeen race season and Felipe summed it up so far as follows: in a way I would be happier if I was in a better and stronger position in the championship, but I have been very pleased with the way I performed in certain races. The worst race, from every point of view was Canada, where I was black- flagged. And although Silverstone was a good race on the track, after I had to start from the back, I could not be happy with that as I finished behind my main competitors."