Wednesday, June 25, 2008

MASSA WARY OF McLAREN

MASSA WARY OF McLAREN

Massa - still wary of McLaren threat.

Felipe Massa is refusing to write off McLaren at the British Grand Prix early next month.

Brazilian Massa spearheaded a Ferrari one-two in the French Grand Prix at Magny-Cours on Sunday to claim the lead in the Formula One world championship for the first time in his career.

Ferrari's domination at the Circuit de Nevers suggests they will take some stopping at Silverstone on July 6.

Last season reigning world champion Raikkonen led home Massa in France, with the Finn following up with a victory in Britain.

McLaren have struggled of late, in particular with Lewis Hamilton failing to score in his last two grands prix.

But Massa, speaking at the current test programme at Silverstone, said: "I think we (Ferrari) can definitely be competitive here.

"At Magny-Cours, we didn't see the real performance from McLaren in the race as they were always blocked in traffic, but for sure, they can be a lot more competitive here.

"We are at least heading in the right direction. Let's hope we are doing so more than them."

Hamilton and team-mate Heikki Kovalainen's race was scuppered by a number of penalties in France, resulting in them finishing 10th and fourth respectively.

Massa's thoughts, though, were borne out by the fact Kovalainen set the quickest time in testing this week with a hot lap of one minute 20.015secs.

That beat Massa's mark from yesterday by 0.173secs, offering hope to McLaren who find themselves lagging a miserable 33 points behind Ferrari in the constructors' championship.

Massa could only manage seventh fastest of the 10 drivers on track during a day in which there were a spate of red flags for several incidents.

Toyota's Jarno Trulli set the second best time of the day late on with a 1:20.391, followed by Nico Rosberg in his Williams, Nelson Piquet for Renault and Toro Rosso's Sebastian Vettel.

Robert Kubica was sixth for BMW Sauber, just under a second down on Kovalainen, with Massa 1.054secs off the pace.

Red Bull's Mark Webber caused the first red flag due to an engine problem that led to him running just four laps before lunch, with further issues posed in the afternoon as he managed 39 overall.

The Australian was eighth quickest, ahead of Jenson Button who ran for 106 laps, but was still 1.430secs behind Kovalainen.

Giancarlo Fisichella brought up the rear for Force India, spinning off at high speed at Becketts just before lunch, wrecking the car and resulting in a wrist injury.

The Italian was taken to the nearby hospital for precautionary x- rays, and although given the all clear, currently has his wrist in a brace.

Fisichella, who will be fit to take part in the British Grand Prix, said: "Unfortunately, I just got caught out by a change in grip and balance going through Becketts, went off the track and hit the barriers.

"I wasn't hurt at all, but I did not take my hands off the wheel and they had to do some checks to make sure my wrist was okay."

Hamilton, Raikkonen and Renault's Fernando Alonso will all be on track tomorrow.



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