Quick Massa Delighted with GP Debut

Brazilian Felipe Massa was delighted with his performance in what was his first official Formula One session with the Sauber team.

The 20-year old, making his Grand Prix debut this season after being hired to replace Finn Kimi Raikkonen at the Swiss squad, set an impressive eighth quickest time in Friday's practice for the season opening Australian Grand Prix, and was happy with the result.

"I think that's a pretty good start for me," said Massa. "The car was really nice today and I was able to learn the track very quickly. I was being very careful to get the first corner right, because otherwise it spoils the second corner as well if you make a mistake there.

"Everything went well, and I'm really happy. My aim is to qualify in the top 10, so this is a good foundation for me."

Teammate Nick Heidfeld, confirming the team's promising performance during the pre-season was no fluke, was fifth fastest in the Ferrari-powered C21 despite suffering an electrical problem in the first session.

"Obviously I'm happy so far," admitted Heidfeld. "It's nice to be fifth quickest on the first day of the new season. I stopped at the end of this morning's session when a faulty sensor caused a warning light to come on, but the second session was fine apart from some brief rain.

"We didn't do everything that we wanted to do today because of the weather, but the performance of the Sauber Petronas C21 confirms the good feelings I have had for the car all winter and my position is even better than I had hoped for."