• Bahrain Grand Prix - Qualifying

Massa saves tyres for race despite Q3 chance

Felipe Massa missed out on Q3 by 0.252s after deciding not to go back out fpr a second run © Sutton Images

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• Report:
• Vettel secures Bahrain pole for improved Red Bull
  

• Race:
• Bahrain Grand Prix

• Drivers:
• Felipe Massa

• Teams:
• Ferrari

Felipe Massa revealed that he decided not to try and make it through to the final part of qualifying in order to save a set of soft tyres for Sunday's Bahrain Grand Prix.

With Ferrari admitting before the race weekend that it did not expect to be competitive, practice proved that the team is struggling more than most with rear tyre degradation due to a lack of traction. Having got through to Q2 Massa said that he wanted to have a new set of soft tyres in the race and decided to only carry out one run, even though the improving track conditions may have meant he could have gone quicker.

"Not exactly a brilliant position, but at least I have a new set of Softs for the race," Massa said. "It's true that the track was improving with every passing minute, but I can't say if using two sets of Softs in Q2 would have seen me get through into Q3. It would have been very difficult and we had decided to sacrifice something today in favour of tomorrow's race, given that here it is very important to be able to use new tyres. That can make the difference when the track and the weather make for a high degradation level."

Massa also agreed with Fernando Alonso's assessment that Ferrari would have to make up places at the start of the race.

"We will try and get a good start and to use our strategy to make up positions. We know from our recent experience in Shanghai that, for us, overtaking is more complicated than for others. Here we suffer especially with a lack of traction coming out of the slower corners and that's why I expect we will be fighting on the defensive in the race."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.