More motivation for Massa

Ferrari's Felipe Massa scored his best result to date so far with second at Indianapolis and its given him more motivation for the rest of the year. Ferrari was dominant in America and scored its first one-two finish of the season, Michael Schumacher leading Massa to the chequered flag. It could perhaps have been the other way around.

Felipe Massa leads the field.

Photo by xpb.cc.

Massa took the lead from pole-sitter Schumacher and comfortably headed the field until his first pit stop, when he rejoined behind his teammate. Ferrari needed Schumacher to be ahead of Massa -- the German is in the title fight and Massa is not really in the running, so, despite the inevitable criticism from detractors, it made sense for Schumacher to get in front.

"Racing is not just about speed, you also need to be intelligent, especially when you are fighting for a championship and so last weekend really was a perfect job from my point of view and from the team perspective also," said Massa.

"On top of that, it has really given us all even more motivation to keep pushing all the way to the end of the season. On a personal level, this is my best result and so it is important for me in terms of my career, as you need to be at the front of the field to be noticed."

Tyres once again played their part at Indianapolis but thankfully this time it was in a less controversial role. The Bridgestones were working at the optimum for Ferrari, while there was a lot of talk that Michelin had erred on the side of caution after last year and was perhaps a little too conservative.

Massa was aware of that. "The other tyre company I am sure adopted a more conservative approach than usual in terms of the performance of its tyres, after events last year," he commented. "When we are back in Europe, I expect the competition to get harder for us again and that we will not look so dominant."

"But in Indy, we showed that our Bridgestone can work at very high temperatures, which we will see now in the European summer. Also, we have some evolutions coming on the car, so combining this and some advantages from our tyres, I think we can be very competitive."

The next race is the French Grand Prix and the general consensus of opinion is that normal service will be resumed, with Renault once again at the front. But with the gaps in the standings between Renault and Ferrari and Fernando Alonso and Schumacher both down a little lower, the second half of the season could get very interesting indeed.