Massa Encouraged by Practice Pace

Brazilian Felipe Massa was encouraged after a promising start to his Spanish Grand Prix at Barcelona, where the Sauber driver set the ninth quickest time in today's practice.

Rookie Massa, benefitting from his past knowledge of the Spanish circuit, outpaced teammate Nick Heidfeld with the Ferrari-powered car, finishing less than a second behind Michael Schumacher, who posted the quickest time of the session.

"I was pretty happy the way things went today," admitted Massa, who turned 21 on Thursday. "I got a good time in early this morning before the temperature really went up, and I improved a little this afternoon.

"For sure some of the people in front of me were on low fuel, so I'm feeling confident. The balance was good and so were the tyres. So far it's been a good way to celebrate my 21st birthday yesterday."

Heidfeld finished in 13th place, the German's progress hampered by a problem with a radiator, which started leaking in the first session and had to be replaced.