Massa to start 10th in Abu Dhabi; Watch the 2017 season finale on Sky F1 from 11.30am on Sunday
Monday 27 November 2017 13:34, UK
Felipe Massa says he will have fun and "risk everything" in his final F1 race after securing 10th with a "perfect" qualifying performance at the Abu Dhabi GP.
The Brazilian, whose 15-season F1 career will come to a close on Sunday, produced one of the laps of the day to squeeze into Q3 at the expense of former Ferrari team-mate Fernando Alonso.
Ultimately his Williams only had enough for the fifth row but 36-year-old Massa said his lap was a nice way to round off his career.
"I want to have fun tomorrow. I have nothing to lose, risk everything you can. Let's have fun," he told Sky F1.
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"It's a good way to retire. You finish with good lap times, good races, taking the best out. I'm happy that I'm finished with my head up and competitive."
Massa finished seventh two weeks ago at his final Brazilian GP and he once again rolled back the years to squeeze into Q3 at Yas Marina.
Needing to find four tenths of a second on his final run, Massa pulled out a 1:38.565 lap time to squeeze out Alonso's McLaren by seven hundredths of a second.
His lap was a second faster than Lance Stroll to finish the season out-qualifying his team-mate 17-2.
Massa has never finished outside of the points in Abu Dhabi and his qualifying performance maintained his record of always starting in the top 10 at the circuit.
"It was good. I'm so happy with the lap. I don't know how I got into Q3, I was on the limit," he said.
"We are 10th but I think that was the best we could achieve today.
"You try everything you can, try the best you can, brake late, go early on the throttle. It worked. Unfortunately I'm 10th but the lap was perfect."
For Stroll it was another difficult qualifying session and while he put some of his performance loss down to the old power unit he is running following a change in Brazil, he conceded he must do better on Saturdays in 2018.
"It wasn't the perfect day and not a great qualifying. I never really got into it," he said.
"I made too many little mistakes and I don't think we were in the window for the tyres.
"We need to understand why this happens over the winter, to try and improve our Saturdays."
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