Massa aiming to seize opportunity

Massa will start from sixth on the grid, his worse qualifying result in the last five races, but crucially well ahead of championship leader Lewis Hamilton, who could only be 15th today.

The Ferrari driver, two points behind Hamilton, admitted he will aim to seize the opportunity tomorrow.

"A very difficult qualifying but, overall, I am reasonably happy," said Massa. "It's true it could have been better, but it could also have been much worse. I am ahead of my main rivals in the fight for the championship and I still have a good grid position therefore.

"Today, especially in Q2, conditions were very critical with aquaplaning at various points and visibility was also poor, especially in traffic and the situation got worse and worse. I still managed to improve my time and make it through to Q3, which was important.

"Tomorrow I must try and finish as high up the order as possible and get some points. It will be a very tough race, but we can rely on a very competitive car."

Teammate Kimi Raikkonen endured another disappointing qualifying, the Finn finishing down in 14th position after failing to set a time before the conditions worsened in Q2.

"There's little to say and I am definitely not happy with this result," Raikkonen said. "I was unable to do a time in Q2 when the conditions would still have made it possible and then it was impossible to catch up.

"On that lap, I went off at Ascari where there was a lot of water on the track, which meant I didn't make it through to the next session.

"Now we must try and make the best of this situation which is definitely not ideal. Starting from the seventh row of the grid could be a bit tricky at the start, because the entry to the first chicane is very tight and it is easy to touch other cars.

"In the dry, the car is working very well but obviously, if it were to rain, it could give some chances to those who are starting further back like me."