Brazilian Felipe Massa denied on Thursday that he was now Ferrari’s number one driver following world champion Kimi Raikkonen’s retirement at the last GP in Valencia.
Massa sits second in the world championship standings, six points behind McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton.
Raikkonen’s retirement dropped him to third overall, 13 points down on the young Briton but with six races left, Massa insisted his Ferrari team-mate is still in the hunt.
“The distance between us and McLaren will be small right down to the wire,” he said. “Right now you could say that the title is between Hamilton and me but Raikkonen only needs two or three good races to get back in the battle.”
However, Massa admitted that team orders could come into play later on in the season.
“We have a team and two drivers who are working towards fighting for the title,” he added. “If when we come to the end one has more chance of winning than the other, then that’s normal, as with what happened to Kimi last season.”
Last season at the final GP of the season, Massa was leading from Raikkonen but the Finn needed to win to claim the title.
He duly overtook his team-mate in the pit stops and went on to be crowned champion.
All 10 Formula One teams are practising at Monza this week although the next Grand Prix is at Spa in Belgium on September 7 before the championship comes back here a week later. Massa had some problems during testing, though, as he skidded off the track.
BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld was fastest during the morning practice.