Quick Massa Happy after Promising Start

Brazilian Felipe Massa benefitted from his past knowledge of the Imola circuit to set an impressive eighth quickest time in Friday's practice for the San Marino Grand Prix.

The Sauber driver, who is making his Formula One debut this year, had already driven at the Italian circuit when he raced in the European F3000 championship.

Despite having to drive his Ferrari-powered C21 in the wet, Massa set a promising eighth fastest time, and admitted he was happy with his car's handling.

"The balance of my car was very good today," said Massa. "Twenty minutes before the end of the session this afternoon everyone was slow, because it wasn't quite good enough for intermediates but too good for wets. The track was quite strange. But I'm happy. If it rains again tomorrow, we have a good balance."

Teammate Nick Heidfeld was 12th quickest after struggling with the balance of his car in the first session. He was capable of improving it in the afternoon, but did not manage to lap faster.

"I struggled a bit with the set up of my car this morning, but by the time we had improved it the tyres were past their peak efficiency," he said. "When we switched to intermediates the track was visually better but the times didn't improve as it was still a little too wet in places."