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Massa Stuns With Fantastic Recovery
By Dale Calkins March 18 2007
Felipe Massa proved to be a main contender for the title today in Australia as he went from dead last to sixth place. After a gearbox failure and an engine change, Massa drove a brilliant race to finish inside the points.
Ferrari 1 - Unofficial Ferrari F1 News and Views

Massa Stuns
With Fantastic
Recovery

Felipe Massa
Race: 6th + 1'06.805

Felipe Massa looked set to start from pole and control the Australian Grand Prix, until a gearbox failure struck him in qualifying. Ferrari then decided to change the Brazilian's engine and go for a one-stop strategy. This plan worked well for Massa, progesively charging through the field in his obviously superior Ferrari. Felipe ran into trouble half way through the race when he was stuck behind Rubens Barrichello, who was in turn stuck behind the absurdly slow Jenson Button. If not for this setback, Massa would likely have finished even further up the results sheet. Unfortunately, Felipe could only make it up to sixth place, not able to get passed Giancarlo Fisichella in the dying laps of the Grand Prix.

Despite only placing sixth, Felipe Massa proved that both he and the Ferrari F2007 car are certainly contenders for this year's World Championship. This is what Felipe had to say after his race:

"After what happened in qualifying yesterday it would have been difficult to do any better than this sixth place. I was able to run at a good pace even with a full fuel load facing a race that would be one long climb through the field. The F2007 was very competitive and so I am optimistic about the next few races. But I cannot forget the disappointment for the failure in qualifying, which meant I had to start from the back of the grid. If not for that, I would definitely have been fighting for the win. But I am happy with the overall result in terms of what it means for the team and I am happy for Kimi who won on his debut with Ferrari."

March 18, 2007

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