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Massa pleased with progress

Felipe Massa struggled to eleventh place in Turkey © Getty Images

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• Felipe Massa

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Felipe Massa says he is happy with the signs of progress at Ferrari, despite having a disappointing weekend at the Turkish Grand Prix.

Having won in Turkey on three previous occasions, Massa endured a frustrating weekend, as he first failed to set a time in the final qualifying session after an error, and then ended the race in 11th place after pit stop problems. He admitted that it had not been a good race for him, but that he was encouraged by the potential the car was showing.

"I failed to score any points and it's fair to say, that given my previous track record in Istanbul, this was obviously a very disappointing result," Massa told the official Ferrari website. "I ended up eleventh, when I could have been challenging for fourth place and that was mainly down to poor pit stops.

However, looking on the positive side, the aero updates we ran for the first time at this race definitely increased our performance level as can be seen from the fact that Fernando secured Ferrari's first podium finish of the year."

Massa said that Ferrari had progressed since the last race in China with the car in both qualifying and race trim.

"Even if we had a difficult qualifying and I did not even bother making a second attempt in Q3 to save tyres, the gap in terms of our qualifying to race performance did come down in Turkey, because we struggled less in qualifying and then made an even bigger step forward on Sunday, which is more proof that the car is improving."

He was at a loss to explain the difference in performance from qualifying to the race, but said that with less emphasis now on qualifying, it wasn't the problem it would have been in previous seasons.

"Why do we have that gap? It's hard to pinpoint the exact reason, but let's say it just seems to be a characteristic of the car, because even last year, we had a similar situation. I think qualifying is still important, but much less than before, like in the days when it was almost the most crucial part of the weekend, when overtaking another car during the race was so difficult. Even if qualifying is less important, there is nothing disappointing about that, because for the fans, it's the race that counts as the most important part of the weekend, so the current situation is, in my opinion, good for the sport."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.