Lewis Hamilton has warned his Ferrari rival Felipe Massa that he faces a flat-out sprint to the finish in the season’s final five races and stressed that McLaren has the upper hand on the track.
“I think Massa is on the back foot and he is the one that has to work damn hard to keep up with me,” said Hamilton of the Brazilian, who narrowed the Briton’s world championship lead to only two points last Sunday after being promoted to victory in Belgium. The British driver took a penalty imposed for straight-lining which meant he dropped from first to third.
“We do have a close race, a close battle, but I feel I am in a very strong position. I feel I have got a great car and we will continue going down the same route we have been going down and continue to knock at them and take points from them and improve our reliability in all areas.”
Massa has never finished higher than ninth at Ferrari’s home track but the Italian team have won seven of the last 10 grands prix there. “We saw this year there were races where Ferrari were better and other races where McLaren were a bit better,” Massa said. “When you see we are two points away and have five races in front of us, everything is completely open.”
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