Massa adamant he can push McLarens

McLaren's Lewis Hamilton secured pole position ahead of teammate Heikki Kovalainen, with Massa the fastest of the Ferraris in third place.

Massa, however, had been the pace setter in Q2 and had finished second quickest in Q1.

The Brazilian reckons he could have been quicker in final qualifying, but the traffic cost him a chance to warm up his tyres properly.

Despite McLaren's dominance, the Ferrari driver insists he will be in a strong position tomorrow.

"I wasn't 100 percent happy with my laps in Q3 because I went onto the track a bit at the wrong time," said Massa. "There were so many slow cars on their out lap. I like to go flat and quickest but you cannot pass them so it is tricky to prepare the tyres.

"I could not prepare the tyres like I was supposed to. I could not do a great lap like in Q1 and Q2."

He added: "We are pretty strong, we didn't seem to be pretty strong until this morning but then look at laptimes of Q1 and Q2. I think we are there. For sure we are not like the race in Hockenheim, and Silverstone was a big lottery, but we are there and I think I can push these guys tomorrow."

Massa said the new aero updates introduced for this race are making the car somewhat better.

"Well, sometimes what you see is not really the reality," he said refering the new shark fin engine cover. "Sometimes they put big bits in the car and it is very visible, but sometimes a small piece makes it more efficient with more downforce.

"It is part of development. It goes a little bit better but on or off it will not improve half a second. It doesn't work like that. We are pushing very hard and I am sure we are going to push harder from this race to end of the season."