Massa not worried by Alonso's Spanish speed

[davewilson]

Ferrari driver Felipe Massa said on Friday he was not at all worried by the early pace shown by rival and defending champion Fernando Alonso of McLaren Mercedes-Benz after the Spaniard had dominated opening practice for Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix.

Brazilian Massa, winner of the last race in Bahrain, was unable to match the speed of an inspired Alonso who put on a show for his fans in the grandstands at the Circuit de Catalunya.

Alonso set the fastest time of the day in the afternoon session to finish ahead of Italian Giancarlo Fisichella in a Renault. Another Renault driver Heikki Kovalainen of Finland was third and Massa was fourth ahead of Alonso's McLaren team-mate British rookie Lewis Hamilton, 22.

"Let's wait for tomorrow and see, when we have qualifying, and everyone is on the same fuel," said Massa.

"Now it is not really important for us what the others are doing, we just need to work on the car and get the right set-up.

"It's not a surprise to see Fernando ahead of everybody. The way we worked today is the way to improve the car for the race and I am sure we are going to be competitive."

Massa, whose team dominated last week's test in Barcelona, said he felt that Ferrari are capable of winning Sunday's race.

"I still have the same feeling. As I said, the lap-time of Fernando is a good lap-time, but it doesn't scare us, as we did a completely different work.

"Fernando maybe had a different strategy to Lewis, so maybe they are working already on qualifying which was definitely not the case (with us)."

Massa's Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen was sixth quickest.

Alonso said: "That was a great start to my home Grand Prix with a trouble free Friday practice.

"We went through the usual programme of tyre evaluation and set-up work, but had a pretty good balance early on.

"We have definitely improved the car further since Bahrain. I look forward to the rest of the weekend and really want to do my best for all the supporters."

His team-mate Hamilton added: "We completed our pre-planned programme focusing on tyres and set-up work. Everything went well. I set my fastest time early in the session and was able to be consistent throughout, so I'm fairly confident for the rest of the weekend."