Felipe Massa insists that his season has not been ruined by the frustrating afternoon he endured at the British Grand Prix ten days ago, and claims that he will be looking to return to winning ways at Hockenheim this weekend.
Despite five spins in tricky conditions meaning that he came home, lapped, as the last of 13 finishers at
Silverstone, the Brazilian retains a share of the world championship lead with
Ferrari team-mate
Kimi Raikkonen and
McLaren's
Lewis Hamilton, and insists that one bad weekend has not derailed his title ambitions.
Indeed, Massa started the year by not scoring in either of the opening rounds, but still bounced back to take the points lead after the French Grand Prix, and he is confident that he can remain in the hunt despite the Silverstone setback.
"Everybody can have a bad day, but I had a very bad weekend," he admitted, "My weekend was completely dark, starting on Friday with the crash, then Saturday with the problem in the [qualifying] pit-stop, and then, on Sunday, it was a disastrous race. That is something you can never explain, it is part of all sporting life. Anybody can have a bad day, but they can have many good days.
"I haven't yet forgotten Silverstone, although it is a weekend to be put in the files as soon as possible. The goal is very simple now - concentrate on the future, which means the second half of the season. As I've said before, there's still a long way to go, everything can happen and the championship is wide open.
"I think it is very difficult to say what the main factor in deciding the outcome will be. When you see that there are four guys all within two points at the top of the table, it is such a small difference, and you cannot say that one thing will make the difference. Each one of us is in the same boat and many things can happen from one race to the next. We're still in a good position. I'm leading in the standings, together with Kimi and Hamilton, and the team has a good advantage in the constructors' championship, so you can't say that things are going too badly, quite the opposite.
