Massa cannot keep pace with faster teammate

Felipe Massa never threatened the front row of the Australian Grand Prix grid as he did in Bahrain, easily out-qualified by Ferrari teammate Fernando Alonso on his way to fifth place in Melbourne on Saturday. Alonso also beat Massa in the race in Bahrain by drop kicking him on lap 1 and never looking back.

Although several drivers qualified in the same grid positions at Albert Park as at Sakhir two weeks ago, Massa was three places further back and will share the third row with Nico Rosberg's Mercedes after suffering issues with tire adhesion.

"Not the qualifying I was expecting, going into this Grand Prix," the Paulista admitted. "Ever since the temperature dropped, I have always struggled to find the best way of getting the tires up to temperature while yesterday morning, for example – when it was hotter – the situation was much better.

"With today's temperatures I had no grip, which is not particularly encouraging – let's hope it's a bit warmer tomorrow.

"In Free Practice 3 I really found it difficult but, come the end of qualifying, I still managed to get a reasonable result. It's definitely not ideal in terms of looking for a win but, all the same, I will try and bring home a good number of points."