Pleased Massa welcomes second place

The Brazilian, starting from second place behind Lewis Hamilton, was unable to fight for victory after falling behind the Briton and Kimi Raikkonen.

He ooked set for third position until it began to rain.

Massa then benefited from Raikkonen's crash to move into second behind Hamilton.

Although the result meant the McLaren driver increased his lead to eight points over Massa, the Brazilian said he was pleased with the result given the circumstances.

"I was slower than I was supposed to be because I saw many people going off, especially Kimi and Lewis who were a bit in front," Massa said of his final laps.

"I didn't want to risk. Eight points is eight points. I was going very slow through corners, it was very, very damp. Sometimes you think something and you go off.

"I made a mistake at the start because I thought the track was more wet than it was, I slowed down too much and Kimi passed me. It was a mistake but then I was just comfortable in third place the whole race. It was difficult to catch them.

"Then suddenly second place came to me so I am pleased. We know the championship is still open. We are going to fight race by race to close the gap and to maybe pass those guys."

Massa lost second place to Raikkonen on the opening lap, when the duo came close to making contact, and the Brazilian admitted it was a close call.

"Kimi was so quick he was going to pass me easy and then he started to close the line and we almost touched wheel to wheel," he added. "I found it strange as he was much quicker, so he passed me.

"Then I got the second place which was pretty lucky but for the circumstances you can say things were not lucky so the result is we finished second."