Massa predicts very strong weekend

The Ferrari driver posted the quickest time in the morning and was second faster behind Renault's Fernando Alonso in the afternoon.

To Massa's delight, championship rival Lewis Hamilton finished down in ninth position with his McLaren.

The Brazilian is optimistic Ferrari will be much stronger at Interlagos than they were in the last race in China.

"For sure. We are much more competitive and always when you are competitive it is even better for motivation," Massa told reporters.

"I think it was a good start," he added. "We were very strong, very competitive and the pace was very good. In the last race Lewis was very strong on the Friday and today it was the opposite, it shows that our car is much more competitive than in Shanghai and that is for sure a very good start.

"We don't have any points yet but I think we did a good job to set up the car. I think we found the direction, we found a good balance straight away. Today is Friday and today we cannot score points but it was a good day to prepare for Saturday and Sunday."

When asked about Hamilton's performance, Massa said: "As I said today is Friday we need to get ready for the battle but it is always good to be in front. Maybe they can still improve, we need to be ready for the battle and as I said, today was a good day."

Massa, who is seven points behind Hamilton ahead of Sunday's race, insisted he will need a lot of circumstances to come together to clinch the title.

"We need the weather, we need Fernando and we need the BMWs. So we need everything to come together," added the Ferrari driver.