Massa disappointed with sixth

Felipe Massa was unhappy with his qualifying result, although Stefano Domenicali praised him © Sutton Images

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Felipe Massa said he was not pleased to be starting sixth on the grid for the Singapore Grand Prix after a difficult qualifying session.

Massa will start alongside Fernando Alonso on the third row, but while his team-mate was within 0.2s of second place, Massa was a second further back. After having to abandon his first run in Q3, Massa said he was having difficulty making the tyres last for a flying lap, but that he took heart from the improved pace of the car compared to recent races.

"Sixth is definitely not the result we were aiming for, but we have to accept it," Massa said. "Now we must think about the race which definitely does not look like being an easy one: tyre degradation is significant, both on the Soft and the Supersoft and will have to be able to adapt to that as best we can.

"We are definitely more competitive here than we were in Monza. Today, it was not easy putting together a perfect lap and, even if the car was much improved compared to the last free practice session, I still had a lot of oversteer, especially when the rear tyres were overheating in the second and third sectors."

Massa also criticised Lewis Hamilton for being aggressive when fighting for track position ahead of the first runs in Q3.

"Honestly, I don't understand why he wanted to pass at all costs: we were all in a line on our "out" lap and there was nothing to be gained from acting like that."

Team principal Stefano Domenicali praised Massa for still putting the car sixth after his problems, but said Ferrari would have to take advantage of potential situations in order to progress in the race.

"Felipe got the job done, extricating himself from a couple of complicated moments and getting the grid position that one could have expected. Now we must concentrate on tomorrow night's race, which will be extremely long and tough, both for the drivers and the cars. We will try and do our best, exploiting every opportunity that comes our way."

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