Massa not giving up title hopes

Felipe Massa believes he can still fight for the championship, despite retiring from the first two races of the season.

The Brazilian spun at Melbourne before an engine failure forced his retirement, and he spun out of the race at Malaysia last weekend leaving him 14 points behind championship leader Lewis Hamilton.

“It was not the start to the season that I wanted,” said Massa, “but there are still 16 races to go and 160 points up for grabs. In the next few races I plan to get back all the points I have lost in the opening two rounds.

“It`s been very frustrating, particularly in Malaysia that the weekend did not live up to the result I could have expected given how it had gone up until the middle of the race, but, as the saying goes, that`s racing.

“Everyone can have a good day or a bad day and I have started this season with things not going my way.”

Massa admitted that the absence of traction control has made driving more difficult, but reiterated that it had nothing to do with his retirement at Sepang.

“We`ve had since the end of last season to get used to driving without electronic aids and, as you have seen in the two races so far, it does seem to have provoked more incidents, spins, and off-track excursions.

“It`s made life harder than before, but I don`t think that was the reason I went off the track last Sunday. I had different problems not linked to traction control.”

26.3.2008   ▪ Formula One    ▪ Massa    ▪ www.autosport.com