Massa, meanwhile, delighted to turn his weekend around
Saturday 21 September 2013 17:36, UK
Fernando Alonso admitted Ferrari's underwhelming qualifying result in Singapore simply reflected the lack of pace the F138 displayed throughout practice, leaving the Spaniard banking on his usual strong Sunday recovery.
While history - and championship position - suggests Alonso will emerge as Ferrari's strongest challenger in the race despite being outqualified by Massa for the fifth time in 2013, the Brazilian's performance in beating his team leader to the third row was nonetheless timely as he strives to save his F1 career after being told by his long-time employers last week that his services wouldn't be required for 2014. Massa had appeared to be particularly all at sea during practice with the handling of his F138 so was delighted to turn things around. "We changed completely the car from yesterday to today. Practice Three was still not perfect, we changed the car again for qualifying and actually managed to put together a great lap in Q3," he told Sky Sports F1. "I'm very happy for how I started the weekend and for the qualifying I did. Put a great lap together in Q3 and I hope we can have a great race tomorrow."
