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Massa confident Red Bulls are beatable

Felipe Massa is hoping to beat the Red Bulls in China © Sutton Images

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• Felipe Massa

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• Red Bull

Felipe Massa believes Red Bull is not as dominant as it might appear after its one-two victory at the last race in Malaysia.

Red Bull eased to a win in Sepang after mistakes in qualifying ruled Ferrari and McLaren out of the running. Massa admits the RB6 is fast but is confident his team can challenge it under normal race conditions.

"I heard people in Malaysia on Sunday saying that Red Bull was now by far the quickest car and it is true they were in the first two rows of the grid," he wrote on his blog. "But over a race distance, I believe the story is a bit different and you have to remember that in Sepang, they were racing pretty much on their own as the two teams who would have pushed them hardest, started from so far back. You need to keep that in mind when assessing the race. They are definitely not unstoppable, but we need to improve a bit to be in a better position to stop them."

Massa is also wary of the McLaren at the upcoming round in China, after the team took full advantage of its F-duct to achieve a high top speed and overtake on the straights in the first three rounds of the season.

"My record in Shanghai is not too bad, as I've stood on the podium twice: I came second in 2008 and third in 2007," Massa said. "It's a nice circuit to drive and the extremely long straight leading into a tight corner means there is a real possibility to overtake. However, we will need to be careful on that straight this year, because we have seen that the McLaren in particular has a very high top speed, so in case of a close battle with them we will have to be careful and ready to defend position."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.