Massa Pleased with Improved Sauber

Brazilian Felipe Massa was happy with the improved handling of his Sauber C21 after this morning free practice session for the Italian Grand Prix.

The rookie wound up seventh quickest in the first of today's sessions, claiming his car's handling was better than in the test the Swiss squad carried out last week at Monza. Massa, however, slid down the order in the second session, finishing down in 13th position.

"This morning my car felt pretty good when I was seventh quickest, and we had taken a definite step forward since the test last week when the handling felt quite nervous," said Massa. "This afternoon we went a different way on set-up and I lacked grip and was slower.

"I think for sure that tomorrow we should go in the direction we went this morning when the balance and grip were good."

Teammate Nick Heidfeld did not manage to get to terms with the set-up of his Petronas-powered machine, the young German posting the 17th quickest time of the day more than three seconds off the pace.

"My car was very difficult today," admitted Heidfeld. "It had low grip in general, and I could feel the chassis bottoming many times on the road even though it shouldn't have done that at the ride heights we were running. I can't explain why this happened so we need to investigate that."

Massa and Heidfeld became the first drivers to use the HANS head and neck protection system, mandatory from next year, at a Grand Prix weekend.