Felipe Massa says he is confident of both his and Ferrari's hopes in this weekend's British Grand Prix – a race in which he has never finished up on the podium – though he warned against dismissing McLaren-Mercedes' chances on the back of the Woking-based outfit's French form.

The Brazilian arrives at Silverstone as the Formula 1 World Championship leader for the first time in his career – and as the first of his countrymen to top the table since the late, great Ayrton Senna all the way back in 1993. He is adamant that he intends going rather better than the fifth-place finishes he has achieved for the Scuderia around the Northants track over the past two seasons.

“I like Silverstone, which has been a good circuit for me,” the 27-year-old underlined, “but I hope I don't have to have such a tough race as I did last year. I had a problem in qualifying, started from the back and had to work my way all through the field to finish fifth in the end.

“[Going from] last to fifth was not bad, but I would prefer to start from the front and stay there, rather than have to fight my way through the field. In fact, an F1 magazine has just done a survey that shows I did more overtaking than any other driver in F1 last year.

“This year, I think that is also the case, especially if you look at how many cars I passed in Canada. That is part of my driving style, which is a bit aggressive. To be honest, though, I would prefer not to do any overtaking because I am in the lead, so this statistic can be seen as a negative as it means I need to overtake.

“Although I like the fast and flowing nature of this circuit – apart from the final section – last year's fifth place was a repeat of my finishing position in 2006 and they are my best results in this event, so there is plenty of potential to finally do something better this time.”

Indeed, Massa will need 'something better' than that if he is to retain the advantage in the title standings that he stole courtesy of his Magny-Cours success just under a fortnight ago – making him the most successful driver in terms of race wins in 2008 to-date.

Though he and team-mate Kimi Raikkonen have out-pointed McLaren on the victory count five-two so far this year, he is wary of assuming the scarlet machines will hold an advantage at Silverstone. Lewis Hamilton set the fastest lap time for the Silver Arrows during pre-race testing around the former airfield circuit last week – more than a second quicker than either of the Ferraris – with team-mate Heikki Kovalainen also out-pacing the two Maranello men for good measure.

“I am sure we will be competitive in the race,” the Sao Paolista affirmed. “In last week's test, we tried some new components, assessed new things on set-up and made some mechanical improvements.