Massa predicts strong weekend for Ferrari

The Italian squad dominated in the morning, with Kimi Raikkonen topping the times from Massa, but dropped down the order in the afternoon.

Massa finished in fifth place, while Raikkonen was second, behind championship leader Lewis Hamilton.

"I am happy with the outcome of these three hours of free practice," said Massa, last year's winner in Turkey. "Both this morning, when I was running without the latest aerodynamic updates and this afternoon, the car was well balanced.

"There is still some room for improvement, but that is just part of the normal evolution of a race weekend. Both types of tyre seem to be very quick and consistent in terms of performance. We will have to evaluate them carefully in terms of their performance for the race.

"In the afternoon, probably because of the wind, the track conditions changed and overall, there was less grip. I set my best time in the first minutes when I was still on worn tyres. I think we will be competitive."

Raikkonen admitted he was happy with his morning session but less so with his work in the afternoon, when he didn't feel totally comfortable with his car.

"I am reasonably happy with the way things went in the morning and a bit less so when it came to the afternoon," said the Finn. "For some reason, probably a change in the wind direction, conditions were rather difficult and we will have to evaluate very carefully the data from the second session because it is easy to go down the wrong route.

"As for the two types of tyre, from what we have seen today, both work well but we will have to wait to do a more complete evaluation tomorrow. We have a good package which we must try and get the most out of."