Indian GP: Felipe Massa says Red Bull is out of Ferrari's reach

The Brazilian lines up sixth on the grid at the Buddh circuit, with an oversteer moment on his quickest lap costing him a chance of starting higher up.

With Ferrari's long-run pace on Friday appearing to be as good as Red Bull and McLaren, Massa sees opportunities for him and team-mate Fernando Alonso to move forward - but possibly not all the way to the front.

"I think Red Bull is very strong - for both qualifying and the race," said Massa, when asked by AUTOSPORT about his feelings for the GP. "I am pretty sure about that.

"Maybe in the race we are a little bit closer but I don't know if it will be enough. I hope it will be enough to fight the McLaren, though."

Massa concedes that Ferrari does not yet have the speed to match Red Bull in pure performance terms, but he is keeping his fingers crossed that planned upgrades will help it achieve that feat.

"We are pushing on that," he said. "For sure for the moment it was still not enough, but we still pushing to the last race.

"I hope we get a direction to be stronger in the qualifying and to be in front of them, to fight in qualifying with both Red Bull and McLaren."

Alonso declared on Saturday that he remains confident of winning the world championship despite Red Bull and Sebastian Vettel's current momentum.