Having started fifth, Massa drove an aggressive race which saw him pick up a place at the start to take fourth. Despite the order around him changing, the Brazilian held onto that position through the pitstops. He held off a late challenge from Kimi Räikkönen to record his best result for a year and a half. Combined with Fernando Alonso’s second place it gave Ferrari 30 points and their best return of the year.
 

“I am particularly happy with the display put on by Felipe, who was in the fight for pole yesterday and for the podium, right down to the last, today,” said team principal Stefano Domenicali. “It is a nice result for him, which is particularly important for us in terms of the Constructors’ Championship, where thanks to the biggest points haul of the year, we have managed to move up to second place.”
 

“It was a good race and I am glad to have finally brought home a good result for me and for the team,” added Massa. “Race after race, the situation has been improving and now we are capable of fighting for the podium: it might have happened here, but it could also have been possible in Montreal and Valencia, which means that today’s performance is not a fluke. It was not easy to make the right tyre choice for the start, because we did not have much data available: Fernando and I went down different routes, but I don’t think either one of us has anything to complain about.”
 

After a torrid beginning to the season in which he scored only two points in the first five races and failed to make it into the top ten on the grid, Massa’s results of late have been steadily improving. He has made Q3 at three of the last four races and scored points in all of those three. Today’s fourth place is his best result since finishing third at the Korean Grand Prix of 2010.