Ferrari hail Massa's 'stunning' lap

Massa, took a crucial pole position in front his home crowd in the knowledge that he needs to win the race to stand a strong chance of beating Lewis Hamilton to the world championship on Sunday.

But despite out-pacing the field by nearly 0.4secs, Smedley told ITV that he had even been concerned that they had fuelled Massa too heavy prior to qualifying.

"Every now and again you see him [Massa] do these stunning laps, and today he has done one," said Smedley. "The fuel [level] is quite normal, we even discussed quite a lot whether we were a little bit heavy.

"But in the end we've gone and done the right thing. It is just a stunning lap to be honest."

Smedley added that he felt he was team were 'pretty relaxed' ahead of tomorrow's climactic finale.

"It's a funny weekend for us, we've come here with the aim of getting pole position, so we've done that, then winning the race and the rest is really in the lap of the gods," he said. "We are all completely relaxed.

"If they weren't paying me to do it I would say I was having fun!"

"The pressure is [on Lewis and McLaren]," he added. "Unfortunately for those people, and we've been in that situation before, all the pressure is there because they have everything to lose.

"I don't know, pressure does funny things, and it forces you in to funny decisions, especially in the cockpit at 300kph. So we will have to see tomorrow, but for us we are relaxed."

Hamilton, who has so far amassed 94 points to Massa's 87, will start the Brazilian Grand Prix from fourth on the grid.

The Briton needs to finish in the top five if his rival wins the race.