(from autosport) Felipe Massa believes that his world championship hopes are still well alive, despite a disappointing qualifying performance in Japan that has left him four places behind title rival Lewis Hamilton on the grid. The Ferrari driver failed to get the best out of his tyres on his final qualifying runs and will start the Japanese Grand Prix for fifth spot - with Hamilton securing a last-gasp pole position. But despite the blow, which appears to have dented his title hopes, Massa still thinks there is everything to play for. "Well, for sure the chance is still there," said Massa. "We have 30 points in front of us. As I said, today the result did not look great. But it doesn't mean that tomorrow will be like that. "So we need to keep fighting until the last lap of the last race. Now it is too early to say. We need to keep fighting and we see how the races go, and if we have managed to change the situation or not. If we can do it, it will be fantastic. If not, we will try again next year." Massa feels that overtaking at Fuji will be possible, which could help him move up the order, and said he was not disheartened by him getting it wrong in qualifying. "Well, we need to do our best," he said about his prospects for the race. "I was on pole position at the last race and we didn't score any points. You never know exactly what is going to happen. "We need to see what we can do, and do the maximum that we can do. And at the end of the race we can see if we did a fantastic job, a good job or a bad job."
I respected Massa before, but now I like him. I think I will finally pick a favorite driver: Massa. If I were spedning millions to run an F1 team, this is the guy I would want on my team. Not Raiikkonen, not Hamilton.
1) Ron, you picked Massa as your "F1 driver I'd most like to make out with" a long time ago! 2) Of course he can still win... if he was saying his hopes are gone, I'd can his ass if I were Luca. All it takes is a DNF or no-points finish for Hamilton and a win for Massa, and he's right back in it. If Lewis wins and Hamilton finishes with no points, then he can start to worry - but until it's mathematically impossible, he should still fight for it! 3) Someone please attach one of those dog training collars to Massa. Every time he says "for sure", ZAP the little $h!t! It's driving me crazy every interview with him, it's for-sure this and for-sure that. It's like a teeny-bopper saying "like" every other second.
Funny. And you prefer Hamilton's typically arrogant interviews?? At what age did your mother drop you on your head??? There is no other explanation. At least Massa can speak a minimum of three languages, most of us are lucky to speak one. English is not his first, actually not even his second language. He is Brazilian of Italian heritage, so Portuguese, and then Italian are his primarily languages. English comes in third, so for you to be upset about his use of the the term "for sure" is extrodinarily trivial. Your prejudice is silly, I would rather hear "for sure" than "awesome" any day.
I hope Massa can pull it off as I think he is deserving of the title this year in regard's to his overall performance.
He actually picked it up from Kimi; it has spread throughout all the drivers whose first language isn't English. I used to count how many times they say it at the post-race interviews; I find it amusing. For sure Massa needs to pull a trick out of his hat tomorrow! Go Massa!
LOL! The last time I heard a guy get that defensive was when I pointed out a grotesquely fat chick before realizing it was his girlfriend.... but I think I am starting to understand why you are so defensive about Massa! You're getting all pissy about this - I was supporting Massa. I said "of course he has a shot". And you still got pissy... Ron, did he brush off your advances or something? I don't care how many languages he can speak.... how do you even know that? Do you have a Massa shrine in your bedroom with your notebook full of Massa facts, and a collage of all the positive articles about him and dart-hole-ridden pictures of every journo who ever wrote something bad about the guy? As for forgiving his annoying habit of repeating his annoying catch phrase, I am not sure we can chalk it up to having too many languages in his head. I speak English, Spanish, Russian and some German and I have never developed an annoying habit like inventing a catch phrase and repeating it in every sentence. Then again, I also don't have an geriatric stalker sticking up for me on message forums either ZING!
Kimi speaks??? Learn something new every day! (better watch out or else I'll be in trouble with Kimis fanbois on here!). Seriously though, I believe Schumi used to toss the "for sure" line around a lot too... it's gotta be someone in Ferrari who'se made it their catch phrase. Gotta hand it to Felipe though, he's the JJ Evans of F1. JJ had "dy-no-mite!" and Felipe has "for sure!". And JJ had an afro and bell bottoms and Massa has his uncanny ability to choke in the rain. Everyone's gotta have something they are good at
для конечно, ты говоришь харашо па руски. балшое спасиба за инфармациу. Поправь плавки, бурак видно!
For sure Massa can still win the title. Particularly if Hamilton chokes again in the final two races. We saw the first of that today. PS: Ron, what did Massa to you that you now only like him? I thought you adored and loved him. What happened?
Massa didn't even buy him dinner beforehand... Also, you can add if the FIA wants to throw out BS penalties, ala Bourdais, to help old Massa out, in those particulars.
The Bourdais penalty doesn't bother me too much because it doesn't really matter what Bourdais does at this point. However it does show FIA's bias towards Ferrari, which is sad.
I agree completely. Massa killed Hamilton's race, got a few points out of it with the assistance of a bogus penalty on Bourdais, and managed to close in a few points. Massas penalty for hitting Lewis really didn't fit the gravity of what he did... Lewis was in, what, 5th? And he put him to the back, AND forced him to come in for a stop. It was probably a net effect of 20-30 seconds on his race, essentially screwing him and giving him no points. It was certainly worth a drive through. Lewis' penalty, while it may have been justified (I am not so sure it was), was a big price to pay just for holding a hard line on the start. Then, to top it all off, they penalized Seabass to move Massa up in the points.... ridiculous. That's twice he's been the beneficiary of 25 second penalties that have served to move him closer to Hamilton. It's rare it happens... when it happens twice, for the same driver, over the course of a few races, which just happens to move him closer to the lead each time, it's beyond something that could be called coincidence.
hamilton had to stop because he completely flat spotted his front tyres anyway. did you see the front right one when he had the spin from the in car camera? i don't get this FIA favouritism thing. last year people complained that there was a bias against ferrari and pro mclaren/hamilton when things like being lifted by the crane back onto the track etc happend and this year there's been claims of ferrari favouritism. after reading all that, i'm confused. to me, it sounds like the FIA favours Ferrari AND McLaren! makes no sense. i'd like to know what the rules are when exiting the pits. that SB penalty seems odd....but i'd put money on it being correct when we see different angles and read the rules instead of just mouthing off and knowing nothing.
