Massa pleased to be back
After missing the last race at Indianapolis, Felipe Massa was back in action for Sauber at Suzuka and was quicker than team-mate Nick Heidfeld
The Brazilian has yet to secure a ride for next season, but was happy to just concentrate on the job in hand. For a part of the second session he held a top 10 position, but dropped back to 15th in the final shake up.
"I'm very pleased to be back at a grand prix, and I'm quite happy with today's performance," he said. "The car had a good balance, but I lost some time with a spark plug problem. Once that was fixed I ran into traffic towards the end of the afternoon session and I also made some mistakes, so I know I can go a lot quicker."
Heidfeld suffered with brake balance problems on his C21 and was three tenths, but only one place, behind Massa.
"Suzuka is my favourite circuit, but as you can see from the positions I'm not very happy with today," he said. "I was struggling to find a decent balance all the time. On old tyres I had oversteer, whereas new ones gave me understeer."
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