Ferrari remain upbeat on Monaco chances

Kimi Raikkonen managed to set the second best time in the afternoon, after Lewis Hamilton stopped because of his crash, but neither he nor Massa believe they have shown their true potential yet.

"We have found a good balance on the car right from the morning session and we have completed all the programme we had planned for the day," said Raikkonen.

"As usual, it is too early to draw conclusions as to how the rest of the weekend will go, because we don't know what our closest rivals have done and also because the track conditions change a lot from Thursday to Saturday. All in all, a good start to the weekend."

Massa, sixth quickest, added: "I didn't manage to exploit all the car's potential, partly because I always had traffic when I was running in the second session with new tyres.

"Unfortunately, on this special track, traffic can cost you an awful lot of time. Over a long run, the situation seems good, but we still have work to do on finding the right balance of the car and that includes on the first lap on new tyres. All the same, I am confident."