Consistency is the key - Massa

For many, finishing third and securing a podium position is a dream result. When you are coming off back to back wins however the result is rather less satisfactory.

Felipe Massa finished the Monaco Grand Prix in that third position, just over a minute behind race winner and championship rival Fernando Alonso. While the result was not great by Massa's high standards, he was nonetheless pretty happy with the weekend as a whole.

"I am really happy with my personal performance over the weekend," Massa began. "However, we were not so happy with our car performance at this track. If you look at how McLaren started on the first day, we knew it would not be so easy to be in front of them. But we managed to limit the damage and third place is not a disaster, when you look at how close and competitive the championship battle is at the moment."

"But certainly, we cannot be a hundred percent happy with the result, given that our rivals filled the top two places. They have some elements of their package that worked better at this circuit than ours. But my personal opinion and I don't know if it is right, is that it was not just McLaren being impressive in Monaco, it was also Ferrari being weak."

"If you look at the difference between McLaren and Renault in Monaco and compare it to the gap between them in Barcelona at the Spanish Grand Prix, there was not much difference.
In Monte Carlo Renault's pace was similar to ours which shows that something in our package, something related to our team, did not work at this track. What we can be sure of is that this situation will not continue, because our car is better than that, which in itself is further motivation to do well at the next race, where our car should have a good package."

Massa is just five points behind Alonso and Lewis Hamilton and looking at the big picture ahead of the Canadian and US races, feels he is very much still in contention for the title.

"I have won two races and Fernando has done the same and the difference as I said is five points," Massa said. "So consistency is what matters over the rest of the season and that is why it is always important to be on the podium. My worst result this year is a sixth place, which is actually not that bad, but you have to make sure you are always in the top three."

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