Massa's greatest drives for Ferrari

Felipe Massa started 139 races for Ferrari. During that period, there were some outstanding performances that, while less frequent in recent years, established him as one of the main protagonists of grand prix racing.

Here are 10 of those drives that stand out. Based on various criteria, the performances themselves, the significance of them and how they fit into Massa's career progression as a whole, they represent the best of the Brazilian's long stint at Ferrari.

Read AUTOSPORT's exclusive interview with Felipe Massa in this week's issue here.

10 Comeback king 2010
Bahrain Grand Prix - 2nd

There were all sorts of questions hanging over Massa when he returned to F1 in 2010 after his accident at the Hungaroring in '09. He answered them spectacularly, by outqualifying new team-mate Fernando Alonso and finishing second to the Spaniard in his first start for eight months.

While Massa's second place on the grid behind Sebastian Vettel earned more to Alonso making a mistake on the Spaniard's key lap than searing pace on his own part, it was a very impressive performance that answered a lot of questions about Massa.

Alonso battled his way past Massa at the first corner and, after Vettel dropped back with a problem, took victory, with Massa 16 seconds down. But the point had been made: Massa was back in business.

9 Breaking his duck
2006 Turkish Grand Prix - 1st

Massa's maiden season alongside Michael Schumacher had been reasonable, but nothing to write home about by the time he headed to Turkey for the 14th race of the year. He had stood on the podium four times and taken points off his team-mate's title rival, Fernando Alonso, in a couple of races.

In Turkey, things changed and Massa notched up both his first pole position and maiden victory. His success was not without luck, but in the circumstances it was a significant moment in his career.

His maiden pole, strangely enough, was an indirect consequence of a lack of pace. Practice suggested he was over half-a-second slower than Schumacher, so the team decided to give the German an extra 15kg of fuel. But Massa raised his game which, combined with Schumacher making some errors while over-reaching himself, left him almost four-tenths clear.

Massa held the lead in the race, but any danger that he would have to relinquish victory to Schumacher was abated when an early safety car period forced Ferrari to pit both drivers on the same lap. This cost Schumacher a place to Alonso and, while the two title contenders battled in the final laps, Massa claimed victory by almost six seconds.

8 Rapid recovery
2007 Bahrain GP - 1st

The 2007 season started in difficult circumstances for Massa and led to big question marks over his Ferrari future after only two races. In Australia, he finished a perfectly respectable fifth from the back of the grid, but after dropping to the same position in the Malaysian GP despite starting from pole, he was under pressure.

Come Bahrain, he simply blitzed it, in the process showing he wasn't content to settle into life as Kimi Raikkonen's support act. Under pressure from the slightly lighter car of Lewis Hamilton in the first stint, he didn't put a foot wrong and was able to extend his lead in the middle stages of the race.

Hamilton came on strong in the final stint, at times taking half-a-second per lap out of the Brazilian, but Massa had it all under control. Massa had dealt with the pressure in the best way possible.

7 Getting the job done
2012 Brazilian Grand Prix - 3rd

Massa's 2012 season had started dreadfully, but he built momentum in the second half of the season and did enough to allow Ferrari to nick second in the constructors' championship. Come the Interlagos season finale, his job was to help team-mate Fernando Alonso to the title.

Although Alonso was denied the crown by Sebastian Vettel, Massa did exactly what was needed of him, showing that when needed he could still turn it on for Ferrari. He followed Alonso home in third place having stuck with him for much of the race and all the indications were that, with a clear run, he would have finished ahead. His feelings on the performance were clear for all to see after the race.

"It's such an emotion to race here," said Massa on the podium. "I think the race was really fantastic. For sure, it could have been a better position than where I finished but anyway I didn't know what to say. Just crying and I didn't know what to say. I didn't know what to feel, it was so amazing."

All the indications were that Massa was the quicker driver in difficult conditions and the fact he finished third, right on Alonso's tail, suggests had he not had to play the team game, he would have been on the second step of the podium. After the season he had endured, it was a big day for Massa.

6 "Can you confirm you understood the message"
2010 German Grand Prix - 2nd

The 2010 German GP stands as the defining moment of the second half of Massa's Ferrari career. Infamously, he was ordered to let team-mate Fernando Alonso past to win the race.

The Brazilian wasn't especially rapid at Hockenheim. While he qualified third, he was half-a-second off Sebastian Vettel and team-mate Alonso. But when the German chopped across the front of the Spaniard at the start, Massa took advantage of the gap created to sweep into the lead.

And there he stayed with Alonso in tow. While Massa did pull out a lead of a few seconds in the first stint, Alonso was lurking.

The Spaniard was nevertheless unable to jump his team-mate during the pitstops. Massa's inch-perfect performance on the outlap after his sole stop kept Alonso under control. Shortly after, Ferrari intervened.

"Alonso is faster than you... can you confirm you understood the message," was the most famous of the radio messages race engineer Rob Smedley offered by way of a clandestine team order. Eventually, he yielded and finished four seconds behind Alonso.

It was one year, to the day, since his potentially life-threatening accident in qualifying for the Hungarian GP...

5 Out-Hamiltoning Hamilton
2008 Hungarian GP - 17th

The result of the race does Massa little justice. He was on his way to victory at the Hungaroring in 2008 until an engine failure with three laps to go forced him out.

While what happened at the end was cruel, what happened at the start is what earns this race a place among Massa's 10 greatest drives. The McLarens led off the front row, but Massa had a good launch and had a run on Hamilton.

But few expected him to attempt a pass, let alone make it stick. On the outside line, he braked as late as he dared and locked up. It seemed inevitable he would go wide, but he had just enough front-end grip to make the corner and emerge ahead of Hamilton.

It stands as one of the most spectacular first-corner moves of the past decade. The fact he did it against a driver who had made that kind of pass his trademark made it all the sweeter.

"It was my only chance," he said. "I knew I couldn't win the race by being behind the McLarens. I had to get past at the start."

Massa stayed ahead through the first round of pitstops and had a decent chance of staying ahead of Hamilton at the second. But this never had the chance to play out as the McLaren driver lost time with a puncture.

4 Showing Alonso who's boss
2007 Spanish Grand Prix - 1st

Massa went into the fifth round of the 2007 season off the back of two consecutive pole positions. But after Friday practice, during which Ferrari was dogged by understeer, McLaren appeared to have the edge.

Aided and abetted by old team-mate Michael Schumacher, making his first appearance at a grand prix since his retirement at the end of 2006, weight distribution and aerodynamic changes overnight transformed the car, allowing Massa to take pole position by three-hundredths of a second ahead of Fernando Alonso after a lap during which he was half-a-second faster than anybody in the slow final sector.

That was a fine performance, but it was what happened at the start of the race that makes this one of Massa's greatest victories.

Alonso made a bold attack around the outside at the first corner. But Massa showed he was not to be trifled with, his front-left wheel making contact with Alonso's sidepod, sending the McLaren driver through the gravel.

"I'm always the first to admit when I make a mistake, but don't tell me today that I made a mistake," he said after winning the race by just under seven seconds from Lewis Hamilton's McLaren. "Come on, this is racing. This is F1 and this is the first corner."

3 The start of something big
2008 Bahrain Grand Prix - 1st

The season could not have got off to a worse start for Massa. After a collision with David Coulthard and then an engine failure in Australia, and spinning out of the race in Malaysia despite claiming pole position, he had no points and the usual doubts were being raised in the media.

Just as it had been a year earlier in Bahrain, Massa's answer was emphatic. He lined up second behind Robert Kubica's BMW Sauber, which had qualified ahead of him by running four laps less fuel on Saturday afternoon, but took the lead at the start and then never looked back.

This was the beginning of a wave that he would ride to the brink of world championship glory that season. Not bad for a driver who had been written off so many times.

2 The one that got away
2008 Singapore Grand Prix - 13th

Massa turned in some mighty qualifying laps during his early years with Ferrari, but none was greater than the one he delivered at the inaugural Singapore GP.

He was over six tenths of a second faster than Hamilton, with team-mate Raikkonen a further eight-tenths back. While Raikkonen was carrying more fuel on his lap, that only added up to about two-tenths of the difference, showing how impressive Massa's lap was.

He was leading relatively comfortably (despite running over a piece of cockpit padding shed by another car, which got stuck at the edge of the floor and compromised performance), when the safety car was deployed. The reason for this was, of course, Nelson Piquet's shunt, stage-managed to create the circumstances for Renault team-mate Fernando Alonso to win.

But it was not just the safety car period that cost the Brazilian. Instead, it was the pitstop blunder. Ferrari's relatively new traffic-light system was operating on manual because of the crowded pitlane and Massa was given the green light before the refuelling hose had been disconnected.

He dragged it down the pitlane, then stopped, and by the time things had been sorted out Massa was out of contention. But despite the result, he did absolutely everything right that weekend and only external circumstances cost him the title rather than the season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix.

1 Destiny denied
2008 Brazilian Grand Prix - 1st

Superficially, it was business as usual for Massa at Interlagos in 2008. In '06, he took pole and won. In '07 he took pole and would have won but for waving team-mate Kimi Raikkonen by to win the world championship. The pattern continued with his victory from pole ahead of Alonso the following year. But the situation was very different.

Massa went into the season finale seven points behind Hamilton. He needed to finish first or second to stand any chance of taking the title and, realistically, had to win the race. He did so in brilliant fashion despite the difficult conditions.

When Massa crossed the line, he was in a position to take the title, McLaren's conservative approach with Hamilton leading him to start the final lap in sixth, one place short of where he needed to be. Twenty-two seconds after Massa took the chequered flag, Hamilton passed the helpless, slick-shod Toyota of Timo Glock to take the crown by a single point.

But it was not just his performance that impressed that day. Instead, his dignity in defeat after giving his all for the title is what is indelibly printed on the mind.

"I think you know the race was just perfect," said a tearful Massa. "We did everything fantastically with such a difficult weather. I am so proud about that race I am so proud about the team."