Massa looks forward to home comforts

Felipe Massa will aim to relive a dream and keep Ferrari’s Formula One title hopes burning on home turf in two weeks’ time.

Massa spearheaded a Ferrari one-two in Sunday‘s Turkish Grand Prix, leading home team-mate Kimi Raikkonen in a dominant race at the Istanbul Park.

Ferrari boss Jean Todt described the result as “a dream race and a dream result” as his team were perfect en route to closing the gap in both the drivers’ and constructors’ championships.

For Massa, it was a repeat performance of his race a year ago when he won the first Grand Prix of his career from his maiden pole.

The advantage will again be with Ferrari at the Italian Grand Prix in Monza on September 9, and Massa has every intention of pressing that home.

“This is becoming a special place for me,” said Massa, who trails Hamilton by 15 points as the championship leader could only finish fifth after suffering a blown tyre on lap 43.

“It is a really great win. I made a very good start and the car behaved perfectly even though it was a difficult race.

“But this result is of great encouragement when looking to the final part of the season, and it is fantastic to head to Monza after a weekend like this.

“It is a very special race for us, so hopefully we can repeat the result here.

“It would be fantastic for the team, for the people, for the tifosi (supporters), so I’m looking forward to the race.”

Ferrari are now within 11 points of bitter rivals McLaren after clinching their second one-two of the season.

With both titles still up for grabs, Todt believes anything is possible as he said: “In this job you must never give up because things can change very quickly and in this race that change worked in our favour.

“In less than two weeks we will be on track in Monza for our home race.

“The effort we will put in will be the same because we will be after an identical result to this one.”

Only Raikkonen appeared unhappy as he sat behind Massa for the entire 58-lap race after passing championship leader Lewis Hamilton off the grid on the run down to the first corner.

“Of course I would like to have won, but probably the race was decided in the qualifying session,” remarked Raikkonen, who is 16 points behind Hamilton.

“When your main rival is your team-mate, there are less unknown factors and even less room to come up with something, and in these days in Formula One it’s hard to get past.

“In Monza I will have to try and do a good qualifying to be in the best possible situation for the race.

“But the important thing is to have put two Ferraris in front of everyone else, and in any case we have made up ground on the championship leader.”