Felipe Massa has conceded that McLaren have the advantage around the sweeping Spa-Francorchamps circuit after being pipped by Lewis Hamilton to pole position in qualifying.
The Brazilian, fresh from victory in Valencia, will line up alongside his chief title rival for the second race in a row on Sunday, but despite lying only a few tenths of a second behind his counterpart and potentially carrying a few laps more fuel Massa insists that the silver cars still hold a performance advantage.
“We saw that the McLaren pace in qualifying was pretty strong, but anyway, I did a great job, a great lap,” Friday’s pace-setter explained.
“I couldn’t manage to get everything out of the car like Lewis just mentioned. I did a perfect lap but it was not enough. We missed a little bit of speed which would have put us in front of them.”
“For sure, we need to look at the strategy first to have a clear picture but if you look at all three qualifying sessions they were pretty strong, so I guess they have a very strong pace here at this track.”
“But you never know, the race is long, I think we can have a very good race pace to fight with these guys. It was very difficult to be in front of both McLarens but at least I was in front of one and we will see tomorrow how it’s going to be.”
