Massa hopes to leave title rivals behind

The Ferrari driver starts ahead of Lewis Hamilton, Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso on the Interlagos grid.

"It is important to do a good start and I am sure the fight hopefully behind me will be a big fight," Massa said.

"I am sure it will be very nice for this people to watch a nice race, a nice fight, and hopefully I can go to the victory."

Massa dominated much of qualifying, but Hamilton closed to within 0.151 seconds with his final flying lap.

"In qualifying I had a very good first try and in the second try I made a small mistake, so I was a bit afraid Lewis could beat me," the Brazilian admitted.

"But it was a good lap and I am happy to come (first) in front of my people, it is a big emotion.

"It was close between Lewis and me in the end. I was also expecting maybe my engineer would say P2, but in the end it was close but enough to be in front."

He now hopes that he can repeat his 2006 Interlagos performance and win in front of his home crowd for the second successive season.

"The atmosphere is always the same, very nice people," Massa said. "I enjoy a lot being here at Interlagos with the Brazilian flags and it is amazing.

"I think last year we had a fantastic weekend, this year is a good start and hopefully we can finish in a similar situation as last year."