Massa predicts stronger race pace

"I think for sure the car should be much better in the race compared to qualifying so I look forward to another strong performance tomorrow," Massa said.

The Ferrari driver qualified in seventh position, four places behind team-mate Fernando Alonso.

He admitted he struggled to get his tyres working properly today, a similar problem as the one he suffered at the Spanish Grand Prix.

"I had a tyre issue with a low grip level on the first laps. So I had a similar issue to the one I had in Barcelona - which is that the car from the race is always very good and consistent with old tyres and fuel in the car.

"But when you take away the fuel and the new tyres I lose grip, I struggle to get the temperature and the grip in the tyres - so today was the biggest problem for me."

He added: "It is something to do with this year's tyres because the way I drive the car is the way I drove last year, and the way I drove the year before and I never had a problem with tyre warm-up. So it has something to do with this year and the way the tyres are which doesn't help my driving. Especially these very hard tyres."

The Brazilian said Red Bull, which secured a dominant front-row lockout, was performing even better than he was anticipating.

"For sure Red Bull showed better performance and a better car than we expected and showed that they have the quickest car. And when we came here, even as we saw in Barcelona, the difference in lap time was similar.

"It means for sure that also Red Bull will be strong on this track compared to other tracks, because of the lay-out. But anyway when we go to other tracks they are always very strong so for sure they have the quickest car."