Massa: Alonso holds the aces

If the Yas Marina event finishes in grid order, then Alonso will be champion as he has enough of a buffer over Red Bull Racing duo Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber to not need to move up the order.

Massa, whose qualifying was ruined when he backed off in the first corner on his final lap after believing he had not made it across the line before the chequered flag came out, is in no doubts about how good the grid is for his team-mate.

"For me, Fernando is starting the race [with] double aces in his hands, like when you play poker," said Massa. "Before the start of the game, if you have two aces then you have the biggest chance to win.

"I think if Sebastian wins, then Fernando needs to be fourth. So the chance is very, very big for him to win the championship.

"In my opinion he needs to concentrate on doing a normal race. The worst guy for him was Mark, and Mark is starting behind in fifth.

"But the race is the race. Many things can happen. In my race in 2008 [in Brazil], nobody expected that - not even me. But anyway, the chance is very big for Fernando."

Massa said that his own final effort was hampered by bad traffic on his out-lap and then confusion over whether he had crossed the timing line before the chequered flag came out.

"It was a big, big casino on the outlap," he said. "There were many cars around, with people passing left and right. Lewis was very slow on the outlap, and I thought better to brake more and start the lap with a reasonable gap.

"So I started it in a reasonable condition but then I saw a red light and I was sure I was already off. I did the first corner slower than I was supposed to do, and I asked. My engineer said it looked okay, but I was already four tenths slower so it was not enough to improve."