Massa: We got the strategy wrong

Massa led the early part of the event from pole position, but a driving error gave the lead to BMW's Robert Kubica.

Although Massa's pace was strong while running behind the Pole, Ferrari decided to change his strategy and so Massa ended up running on intermediate tyres for too long.

By the time he changed his tyres, Massa was already out of contention for victory.

"I had a difficult race," said the Brazilian. "I lost the radio with over 20 laps (left). I couldn't talk and just had to look at the boards, so it was not so easy to know what was going on.

"In the first stint even with the moment I was so quick. I was able to put down such a good pace and I knew the strategy was working very well and car was perfect, and suddenly we changed to one stop and put fuel to end of race and that was a mistake because the track was getting dry.

"We expect some more rain coming but it didn't come and then by the time Robert stopped I wanted to stop again but it was difficult to keep a conversation between team and me.

"We took too long to change tyres. We made a mistake on the strategy but it's good to be on the podium. We know the championship is long and I am happy with the result.

"We had a great car in the dry and a great strategy. I was maybe the last car to stop, so it means we had a great car in qualifying and the race but the strategy didn't work."

Massa lost the lead to Kubica when he went off at the end of the straight, although the Brazilian recovered quickly and was soon behind the BMW.

"For sure, all of us had a little moment," he said. "In a race like that it is so easy to have a small loss of concentration. I just braked over the line and couldn't stop the car. I braked a little bit over line and couldn't stop it."

Massa is now four points off the championship lead, behind Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen.