Massa: Reliability

We think we know what we are doing now.

Felipe Massa
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Felipe Massa said he is looking forward to finally getting both his own and Ferrari's season underway after taking pole position for Sunday's Malaysian Grand Prix.

The Brazilian set a scorching pace at Sepang in the final qualifying session, his best lap being some half-a-second quicker than that managed by the second fastest driver, team-mate and world champion Kimi Raikkonen.

The pair endured a miserable season-opening race in Australia last weekend, with Raikkonen's solitary point for eighth place the net result from a race which saw both men retire with engine failures and the Finn starting 15th after a fuel feed problem in qualifying.

Massa and Raikkonen also made errors aplenty in Albert Park, with the former hopeful that both fresh engines and the fact that Ferrari have secured the front row in the Far East will this time keep them out of trouble.

"I am looking forward to having a very reliable car," he said.

"It was a very bad result in the last race, not just the engine but also the race itself was a problem and the qualifying with Kimi.

"It was definitely a weekend to forget. We think we know what we are doing now. We think we know how it is going to be during the race in terms of reliability with all the preparations the engineers are doing, so hopefully we can have two very reliable races now with the same engine."

Rash

Ferrari's cause has also been helped by the five-place grid penalties incurred by Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen, drivers for their chief rivals McLaren-Mercedes.

Massa is therefore unlikely to find himself in a repeat of the start of last year's race when, also starting from pole position, he was overtaken by both Hamilton and the latter's then team-mate Fernando Alonso in the opening corners.

In the end, Massa could only manage fifth after Hamilton lured the 26-year-old into a rash overtaking move which resulted in him driving off the circuit.

Nevertheless, Massa insisted he will not have an easier ride tomorrow with team-mate Raikkonen alongside him.

"It doesn't matter," he replied when asked whether having Raikkonen in close attendance meant he was under less pressure.

"You always try to do the best start you can, you always try to stay in front at the first corner. Last year it was not possible. I will just try to do better this year.

"I should have a good start, so let's hope and see if we can keep the same position tomorrow."