Massa expecting to fight for pole

Both practice sessions on Friday were dominated by McLaren's Fernando Alonso, with Massa being second fastest in the afternoon, albeit over half a second behind the Spaniard.

The Brazilian, however, is optimistic he will be able to fight for the top position on Saturday.

"We got through a lot of work during these three hours of free practice, trying various different set-ups on the car," said Massa. "At the end, on new tyres, I managed to post a competitive time, which is encouraging for the rest of the weekend.

"The track surface was very slippery, especially this morning and that made working on the car difficult. We improved it a lot over the three hours but there is still much to do.

"I think we can fight for pole, but we will only get a good idea of where we stand compared to the others tomorrow, when we will all be in the same situation in terms of fuel load and tyres. Strategy choices will also play a vital role given that, at least from what we have seen today, tyre degradation is quite significant."

Teammate Kimi Raikkonen, aiming to bounce back after two disappointing races, finished the second session fourth quickest but said not too much should be read into that.

"It is difficult to get a clear picture of the situation because the track was really slippery today, more so than we could have expected," he said. "But the grip level improved a bit in the afternoon.

"We got through our planned programme and now we have to study the data to work out how to improve our performance and find the best balance for the car, taking into account that the condition of the track surface should improve over the course of the weekend."