Massa testing for his next career after F1?

(GMM) Felipe Massa, who is fighting to keep his seat at Ferrari after seven consecutive seasons with the famous Italian team, gave his August break a boost at the weekend by going P1 at his home circuit, Interlagos.

He was faster than regulars including former grand prix driver Christian Fittipaldi during practice for a round of the Brazilian Copa Fiat touring car series.

“Having one set of tires more than the others helped me but I was not expecting to be quicker than excellent and experienced drivers like Christian Fittipaldi, Caca Bueno and André Bragantini, who are leading the championship," said Massa.

Meanwhile in the Auto Motor und Sport mid-season ranking the 31-year-old was a lowly seventeenth – 16 places behind his excellent teammate Fernando Alonso and even reportedly outclassed by drivers including Daniel Ricciardo and Vitaly Petrov.

“Many people believe this is the first time I’ve been in such a situation," Massa is quoted by the Russian website f1news.ru.

“It’s not. It happened a lot in the series I did before Formula One – if I did not win the race then I probably wouldn’t have the money to do the next one."