- Brazilian GP - Qualifying
Traffic cost Massa his final shot at pole
Felipe Massa said problems starting his car's engine and subsequent traffic issues prevented him from having a shot at pole position at his home grand prix in Brazil.
Massa qualified third and 0.224s off Nico Rosberg on pole position at Interlagos, but decided to abandon his final qualifying attempt after a poor middle sector. He said he was out of sync with the traffic after his engine failed to fire up for his final run, but is not sure if he would have had quite enough to beat the Mercedes.
"I think it was definitely a good qualifying today and very tight between us in my team - me and Valtteri - and Nico and Lewis as well," he said. "We were very close so it was not an easy qualifying, but I managed to do a good lap straight away but then I just had a problem on the second set [of tyres] with traffic and the engine not firing up.
"The car is good and I would say it is competitive. We need to understand how the tyres will behave in the race tomorrow and the weather as well. But I think I can try to aim for my best race [of the season] and I really hope that it can be positive and I can have some opportunities even with these two guys [the Mercedes drivers].
"It's very emotional to be here in Brazil in a competitive car and sat in the top three. I didn't use everything I could from the car because there was a lot of traffic, a lot of problems on my last set [of tyres]. I couldn't improve my lap time and everybody was improving a little with the second set. I was not going to improve maybe enough to beat them, but we could have got very close. I'm just so happy and I hope I get a good start tomorrow and a good result for us as well."
Massa is hoping he will get another shot at competing with the Mercedes in Sunday's race.
"I don't know if we will have the chance to be more competitive than Mercedes tomorrow, but I hope I will have the chance to be in front and at least compete with these guys. I will do everything I can and we know that this race is very important for us and for me and the people watching and supporting me. I will try everything again."
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