The new points system has made the championship fight closer then ever, and with Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull seemingly on a similar pace after Montreal, the Brazilian knows that a couple of good results could transform his season.

“Until you see from a mathematical point of view that you don’t have a chance anymore, the championship is definitely open,” he said. “We saw that in two races many things changed. Many things can change quickly in another two races.”

Although the 28-year-old had a troubled time in Canada, coming together with Vitantonio Liuzzi at the start of the race and former team-mate Michael Schumacher towards the end, and eventually finished down in 15th, Massa felt a good car underneath him and is hopeful heading to the second Spanish venue of the season.

“Valencia is a circuit close to Canada in terms of the layout. We had a good car in Montreal in the race. I had very good laptimes and a good, consistent car – so this is something to look forward to for Valencia,” Massa added.

Meanwhile, team-mate Fernando Alonso is excited by returning to his home country and is gunning for the win to put him firmly in the mix with championship leader Lewis Hamilton.

“I expect a very strong Ferrari again in Valencia,” said the Spaniard. “The goal is to be on the podium on Sunday afternoon. The dream is to win the race. I think there’s a good atmosphere in the team and I’m very optimistic.”

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www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1KMFRgV_nI

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Although Massa missed out on the points in Canada, having got caught up in a first lap tangle with Vitantonio Liuzzi and a late-race run-in with Michael Schumacher, the Brazilian was encouraged by the pace of his F10.

And, with team-mate Fernando Alonso having battled for the win before finishing third, Massa believes updates planned for Valencia should give his team a good chance of delivering a good result.

“The car was much more competitive in Canada than in Turkey, which is a good basis on which to go to Valencia for the next race,” Massa told the official Ferrari website.

“The street circuit there is not so different in terms of its characteristics to the Montreal track and on top of that, we expect to have some more updates for the F10 to make it even more competitive with those ahead of us in the championship.

“Valencia has not produced very exciting races so far, but I enjoy the track, as the only time I have raced there, in 2008 – it was one of the races I missed last year after my accident – I won. It would be nice to think we could be in with a chance of doing the same again this time.”

He added: “With the unpredictable nature of this year’s championship anything can happen and I am sure we can be in the fight for the top places come Sunday in Spain.”

In Valencia Ferrari is expected to become one of the first of Red Bull Racing’s rivals to adopt the low exhaust configuration that is believed to have been a factor in helping the RB6 set the pace over the start of the season.

McLaren and Williams are set to follow suit for the British GP.

Jonathan Noble  – Autosport

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Despite having not won a race since the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix, the team remains a strong contender for the world title – and victory in Canada last weekend for Fernando Alonso would have put him at the top of the standings.

With Ferrari introducing a major update to its car in Valencia, which is set to include the low blown exhaust concept that is helping Red Bull Racing so much, team principal Stefano Domenicali is aware of the need to ramp up its efforts.

“For sure there is a need for a more aggressive push,” said Domenicali. “It was clear that we had concentrated too much effort on this blown rear wing – we spent a lot of effort there, being not focused on the other areas of the car.

“From Valencia onwards the focus will be to develop other areas of the car apart from this blown rear wing, because it is a complicated system that took a lot of resources out of our team.”

Domenicali reckons his team could have done better in Montreal last weekend, where Alonso fought hard with Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button but lost out badly lapping backmarkers.

“We could have done much, much, more in terms of result,” said Domenicali. “The performance that we had was really good, honestly, and the car was exactly the same as it was in Turkey where we were nine tenths behind.

“We need to be prudent before we do something exaggerated on one side or another. For sure the tyres are a key factor – and here we did the right choices in that respect.”

He added: “Going back to the championship, it is very, very open. I did a calculation that if we had won the race we would be leading the championship with Fernando.

“It means that everything is really very, very open and that is the motivation that we should have inside to make sure that we push race-by-race. Canada gave a picture that was totally different from the picture we had two weeks ago.”

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A collision with Tonio Liuzzi’s Force India at the first corner dropped him back and despite fighting back into the points, further contact with Michael Schumacher’s Mercedes put paid to his chances.

“This was a horrible race, in which everything happened to me,” said Massa. “At the first corner, I had an accident that put me out of the game in terms of fighting for a top place finish. I got a very good start, but I found myself sandwiched between Button and Liuzzi, who touched me and you all saw how it ended up. A shame, but these things happen.”

Despite yet another disappointing race in a frustrating season so far for the 2008 runner-up, Massa confessed himself happy with his Ferrari’s race pace and he is looking forward to a strong showing in Valencia.

“The car was very good today, as is usually the case in the races when compared to qualifying. After that, I was always in a lot of traffic and when I had at least managed to get back into the points, there was another collision, this time with Michael and that put an end to even that slight chance of points. I expect to do better in Valencia because there will be updates on the F10 and I hope to be in the fight for the top places.”

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Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso finished third, but would rue a potential lost victory, as he had been passed by both McLarens at different moments when wrong-footed by others cars.

Red Bull had to settle for fourth and fifth – Sebastian Vettel nursing a car problem for much of the distance, and Mark Webber losing the lead when his strategy of leaving the super soft tyres until the final laps failed to pay off.

It was immediately clear that the softer tyres were going to be very fragile, for while Hamilton held the lead off the start, within a few laps Vettel – on the harder rubber – was all over the back of him. Alonso ran just behind them, with fourth-placed Button fending off an equally menacing Webber until the Red Bull dived past into Turn 8 on lap five, just before Button pitted.

Webber then swiftly caught the Hamilton, Vettel, Alonso train at the front, lining up a move on the Ferrari just as it came in for harder tyres on lap seven. Hamilton pitted from the lead at the same moment, falling behind Alonso in the stop and coming off second best as they charged down the exit road side by side.

That moved Red Bull into one-two formation, but it was clear that even the medium compound tyre was not faring too well, as Alonso, Hamilton and Button started catching the lead duo at up to one second per lap on their fresh rubber.

The Red Bulls came in on laps 12 and 13 and split their strategies – Vettel taking the super soft tyres for his next stint while Webber postponed that task and stuck with mediums.

Fellow medium runner Sebastien Buemi, who had advanced up the order as those ahead stopped, then found himself leading for Toro Rosso for a lap, with the battling Alonso and Hamilton on his tail.

On that lap, Alonso’s failed attempt to pass Buemi down the outside into the hairpin gave Hamilton a chance to draft the Ferrari on the next straight – moving the McLaren from third to first in the space of a few yards as Buemi immediately pitted.

Alonso stayed with Hamilton though, and as their next set of tyres started to wilt, he became ever more threatening. The Ferrari was just lining up a move for the lead on lap 26 when Hamilton decided to stop again, diving straight in to get another set of hard tyres. Alonso, Vettel and Button followed suit in quick succession, while Webber stayed out, assumed the lead and trying to keep his medium tyres intact as long as possible to shorten his stint on the fragile super softs.

At first the plan worked well, Webber pulling out a 10s lead over Hamilton, Alonso, Button and Vettel as they ran in fairly close company in second to fifth positions.

But by lap 39 Webber’s tyres were going off too, and heavy traffic made life even tougher for him. Before long Hamilton was right back on his tail, taking the lead on lap 49 and encouraging Webber to pit next time around to finally take on super softs, dropping him to fifth.

Vettel was unable to keep pace with the McLarens and Alonso, the team speaking over the radio of a ‘problem being managed’, so it became a three-way battle for the lead going into the closing stages as the track rubbered in at last and the tyres gained durability.

Button made it a McLaren one-two with 15 laps to go when Alonso was trapped behind Karun Chandhok’s Hispania and lost momentum. The champion set off after Hamilton and started to chip away at the leader’s advantage, though a new fastest lap by Hamilton nine laps from the end sent a clear message to his team-mate. The top three then spread out, with McLaren cruising to another one-two and Alonso at least getting back on the podium after two tough races.

Nico Rosberg recovered from being pushed back into the midfield during a messy first lap to take sixth for Mercedes, ahead of Renault’s Robert Kubica, who had a wheel-banging battle with Michael Schumacher in the early stages that saw both take to the grass.

Schumacher’s tyre troubles were worse than most – the Mercedes pitting three times and still lapping 4s off the pace in the final stint. Buemi passed him for seventh, and he was then caught by Felipe Massa. The Brazilian and Tonio Liuzzi managed to tangle twice during the first two corners of the race, damaging both cars. After pitting for repairs, they charged back towards the points, only for Massa to lose his front wing when Schumacher sternly defended his position with six laps to go.

Liuzzi then took up the challenge of trying to overtake Schumacher, who slid over the final chicane and banged wheels with the Italian more than once as he fought mightily to at least hang on to ninth. He could not though, with a bruising last lap seeing the seven-time champion tumble to 11th behind both Liuzzi and his Force India team-mate Adrian Sutil.

Other drivers hitting trouble on the first lap were both Saubers and Vitaly Petrov. The Renault took to the grass on the run towards the first corner and ended up spinning into Pedro de la Rosa, damaging both cars, with Petrov also receiving a jump-start penalty. The second Sauber was soon heading for the pits too – Kamui Kobayashi sliding into the wall at the final chicane as he jousted with Nico Hulkenberg’s Williams.

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The Italian squad announced on Wednesday that the Brazilian would stay on for a further two seasons, having signed a new deal until the end of 2012.

“It is fantastic to re-sign for Ferrari,” Massa told a news conference in Montreal on Thursday.

“It shows that everybody from the team trusts you and I think that is a very good point for me, to keep pushing hard and harder all the time, to keep working together with the team to achieve the best.

“It is everything I want and what the team wants, so I am very happy to stay.

“It’s a little bit more time with Ferrari, which is a team I always dreamed to race for and when you see this is my fifth championship for Ferrari and I stay for another two years it is a fantastic feeling.”

The Brazilian, whose team was off the pace of the leading teams in the previous race in Turkey, is hoping Ferrari can take a step forward this weekend in Canada.

“I hope. For sure that is always our target, to be the best. We saw a very strong McLaren and Red Bull in the last race, I am sure they are going to be strong here as well.

“Also we were as well behind Mercedes and Renault in the last race, so we are pushing hard to be in front and fight for the best – which is what we are working for.”

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