Massa puts Ferrari in the driver's seat again

[davewilson]

Brazilian Felipe Massa kept Ferrari top of the timesheets for the third day in a row as formula one teams wrapped up the final major pre-season test yesterday.

Massa, partnered by Finland's Kimi Raikkonen this season after the retirement of seven times champion Michael Schumacher, lapped Bahrain's Sakhir circuit in one minute 29.989 seconds.

He tested in the morning only, but was using the team's latest aerodynamic package ahead of the season-opener in Melbourne on March 18.

"At the moment it looks like we are quite strong with a good package," Massa told the Autosport website.

"We've made a big step forward in terms of set up work and aerodynamics.

"I have to say I'm really happy and optimistic. I'm ready for the first race."

Finland's Heikki Kovalainen was second quickest for Renault in 1:30.384.

Teammate Italian Giancarlo Fisichella was third in 1:30.498 with Raikkonen fourth and double world champion Fernando Alonso fifth for McLaren.

American Scott Speed was the busiest driver on track, completing 124 laps for Ferrari-powered Toro Rosso and finishing eighth of the 16 drivers present.

"Last week was a shakedown for us really and every day more and more parts have arrived here from the factory, which have helped us to improve reliability and performance," chief engineer Laurent Mekies said.

 Super Aguri has postponed the launch of what could be a controversial new formula one car until the Wednesday before the season-opening Australian Grand Prix. "We are working relentlessly to prepare our 2007 challenger which will unfortunately not be available for presentation on March 12 in Tokyo as originally planned," the team said.

The SA07 car, which is expected to be bear a close resemblance to last year's race-winning Honda, will instead by revealed on the afternoon of March 14 in front of the team garage at the Albert Park circuit in Melbourne.

Cars must then be presented for official scrutinising before the first day of track action on Friday.

Super Aguri, which has Japan's Takuma Sato and Briton Anthony Davidson driving for it this year, failed to score a point in its debut season but has looked more competitive in pre-season testing.

The Stig