Spanish GP: Felipe Massa still frustrated by qualifying penalty

The Brazilian had qualified sixth, but was demoted three places after being adjudged to have blocked Mark Webber's Red Bull.

Given his race pace, Massa felt the penalty - which he disputed - had been very costly.

"I'm disappointed because of what happened yesterday," said Massa. "I didn't cause any issues for him.

"So I tried to be aggressive, passing people and I tried to undercut people as well by stopping before them."

Once up to third, Massa attempted to chase down Kimi Raikkonen for second place, before wearing out his tyres and having to settle for third.

"Maybe there was the opportunity to fight with Kimi, but in the end it was a great race, we did a great job," said Massa.

"My car was superb for this track and the degradation of the tyres was not like Lotus but we did the best we could do and we showed the performance we expected to have from Friday."

He sees no reason why Ferrari cannot maintain its current form, with his team-mate Fernando Alonso winning in Spain.

"I think it's an incredible direction," said Massa. "I hope from now on we are fighting for a podium for all the races.

"We're pushing hard to improve the car in qualifying but we know we have a good car in the race."