Felipe Massa says he is hopeful that Ferrari will be able to challenge for pole position in the European Grand Prix just as it did in Canada.
Ferrari enjoyed its best qualifying performance of the season in Montreal when Fernando Alonso was second ahead of Massa in third, just 0.2s behind pole-sitter Sebastian Vettel. Massa said that it had been another encouraging day of practice, and that he expected to have a similarly competitive car this weekend.
"I'd say it was a good day, better than many other Fridays this season," Massa said. "From what we could understand after three hours of free practice, the car is pretty competitive and I don't expect the situation to be that different to the one we saw two weeks ago in Canada. It's true it is only Friday, but at least it's a positive start!"
Massa also said that the car was working on the medium compound tyre, but that with such a difference in performance between the two types of available tyre, the balance was proving difficult to perfect.
"The tyres worked well: both the Prime and the Option delivered more grip than we had been expecting going into the weekend. Sure, there's a big difference between the two compounds, but the Medium, with higher temperatures than we saw in Canada, did not do badly. Now we must make the right decision regarding set-up on the car for the next two days. The car balance is not yet perfect - for example we are still locking the fronts too often under braking - but we are working in the right direction. Let's hope we can put up a fight in qualifying, just as we did in Canada."
Source: ESPNF1
