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Tuesday, 19th December 2006

Felipe Massa picked up where he had left off in Interlagos two months ago by triumphing in a celebrity-studded kart race in his native Brazil, to the obvious delight of the partisan crowd who turned out to watch.

Tough as it may have been, the Sao Paolista blitzed the field to record a lights-to-flag victory in race one, leading home Piquet Jnr and new ART Grand Prix GP2 signing Lucas di Grassi. A GP2-style reverse grid then saw Massa starting well down the order in race two, even dropping as low as 16th place at one point, before recovering to re-assert his authority and lap up the plaudits of his throngs of supporters.

“I was watching Nelson all the time,” he admitted. “My kart was good during the whole weekend and that allowed me to overtake the guys ahead. The important thing was to close the curtains on 2006 in fine style. I now expect another very good year in Formula One, winning more races and perhaps fighting for the world championship.”

Pizzonia eventually claimed fourth place overall, ahead of Bernoldi, Kanaan, IRL star Vitor Meira and Liuzzi.

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