"A couple of
days after the race and I'm still home in Monaco where the
Grand Prix can be summed up by saying that I am really happy
with my personal performance over the weekend. However, we
were not so happy with our car performance at this track. If
you look at how McLaren started on the first day, we knew it
would not be so easy to be in front of them. But we managed
to limit the damage and third place is not a disaster, when
you look at how close and competitive the championship
battle is at the moment.
"But certainly, we cannot be a hundred percent happy with
the result, given that our rivals filled the top two places.
They have some elements of their package that worked better
at this circuit than ours. But my personal opinion and I
don't know if it is right, is that it was not just McLaren
being impressive in Monaco, it was also Ferrari being weak.
If you look at the difference between McLaren and Renault in
Monaco and compare it to the gap between them in Barcelona
at the Spanish Grand Prix, there was not much difference. In
Monte Carlo Renault's pace was similar to ours which shows
that something in our package, something related to our
team, did not work at this track. What we can be sure of is
that this situation will not continue, because our car is
better than that, which in itself is further motivation to
do well at the next race, where our car should have a good
package. The championship is still looking good for me after
these important points for third place. We have done five
races, I am five points behind Fernando and Lewis and there
are still twelve races to go.
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Felipe Massa joins the
race dominating McLaren drivers', Fernando Alonso
and Lewis Hamilton, on the podium in Monte Carlo
last Sunday. |
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"A couple of days after the race and I'm still home
in Monaco where the Grand Prix can be summed up by
saying that I am really happy with my personal
performance over the weekend," says Felipe Massa. |
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"That's not a big difference and I feel that everything is
still a hundred percent open in the fight for the title. But
we need to be ahead of them. I have won two races and
Fernando has done the same and the difference as I said is
five points. So consistency is what matters over the rest of
the season and that is why it is always important to be on
the podium. My worst result this year is a sixth place,
which is actually not that bad, but you have to make sure
you are always in the top three.
"Away from the racing, I did enjoy the Monaco Grand Prix
with family and friends staying with me at home here, which
made it a nice weekend. On top of that, we should not forget
that this was my first podium finish here in Monte Carlo
which is a good result in itself. For sure, when you have a
very good car, a podium is not as much as people expect from
you, but for me it was a good result and I was particularly
happy with my performance. I just want to finish ahead of
those two guys next time. Now, I'm staying here at home
until next Tuesday, when I fly out to Montreal."
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