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massa faces twin f1 threat

GRACIOUS: Felipe Massa. © Circa. 03/09. © Unknown.
GRACIOUS: Felipe Massa. © Circa. 03/09. © Unknown.

MELBOURNE - After losing out to one Briton in last year's Formula One championship, Felipe Massa is expecting a two-pronged attack from British drivers this season.

MELBOURNE - After losing out to one Briton in last year's Formula One championship, Felipe Massa is expecting a two-pronged attack from British drivers this season.

Massa lost last year's championship by a solitary point to McLaren's Lewis Hamilton but is also fearful of Jenson Button whose Brawn GP team set the pace during winter testing.

"The picture from the winter is that Brawn is better than everybody else and we need to fight each other for the third place, but I hope not," Massa said yesterday.

The disappointment of losing last year's title has finally been consigned to history for Massa.

The 27-year-old Brazilian showed remarkable grace in the way he handled his agonising defeat in the last race of the season.

With the new season about to roar into life in Australia this weekend, Massa could be forgiven for thinking about what might have been but the Ferrari driver says nothing could be further from his mind.

"We finished that business last year. We were one point behind but that's finished," he said. "Now we all have to start again from zero."

Massa won more races than Hamilton last year but paid the price for a slow start to the season, failing to finish in either of the first two races, in Australia and Malaysia.

"I hope we will have a very competitive car like we did last year, maybe slightly more reliable," he said. "We have to take everything we learnt from the past into this season, we know the championship is long."

Despite his growing fears about Brawn GP, Massa said he was still expecting McLaren to be a big threat even though they were off the pace in testing. - Reuters

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