Massa hits back at his critics

The Brazilian dominated practice and qualifying at Sepang but fell to third behind the McLarens on the opening lap.

He then went off the road while trying to pass Hamilton for second on lap six and spent the rest of the race stuck behind Nick Heidfeld in fifth place.

"But the only certainty I had was that, having lost position to Fernando (Alonso) and to Lewis, I knew that if I did not pass Lewis as soon as possible, my race was effectively over," said Massa.

"The best I could have finished would have been third at that point. With me due to refuel on lap 17 and Lewis three laps later, I would never have overtaken him in the run of pit stops and so the only course open to me was to try and pass him on the track.

"That is why I said to myself that I did not want to sit behind him, looking at the back of a McLaren for the whole race!

"If people accuse me of making mistake, I say, yes I did make a mistake, because otherwise I would have been ahead of him.

"But I am not disappointed that I tried to pass him. You have to try in life and if tomorrow I am in the same position, I would try again. Hopefully, I would get past this time.

"I know it can seem different from outside the car, but from inside the car, with the information we had, what I tried to do was the right thing."

Although Massa suggested that Ferrari did not get a chance to show their ultimate performance level in the race at Sepang, he conceded that McLaren appeared to have closed in.

"We did not have a good race pace on Sunday. Why? To be honest we are not exactly sure," he said.

"Some of it came from elements of the car set-up and parts we used in the race, but what is clear is that McLaren had made a good step forward.

"But our race pace was not a fair reflection of what it could have been and what it is supposed to be, because both me and Kimi (Raikkonen) were stuck in traffic for a lot of the race. Of course, this was not supposed to have happened given that I started from pole and Kimi from third.

"It was not what we had expected, but after a start that was not very good for either us as we lost position, it cost us a lot.

"I cannot say if our real pace would have matched the McLarens, but I know we have a good car."