Massa pleased with top six

Felipe Massa said he was pleased with sixth on the grid for the Korean Grand Prix as the Brazilian seeks to build on the podium finish he enjoyed last weekend in Japan.

The Brazilian produced a solid performance in the session to qualify inside the top six for only the fourth time this season as he looks to try and cement his place with Ferrari for the 2013 campaign.

Like team-mate Fernando Alonso, who starts directly ahead in fourth, Massa said he was hopeful that the team would maintain its record of performing better on race day than in qualifying to help him make up places.

"It was a reasonably good qualifying, even if it was not perfect," he said. "I made a few small mistakes that maybe cost me one or two places, but all in all, sixth place is definitely not a disaster. The most important thing today is that we made the cut through from Q2: it means that, from this point of view, we have made a significant step forward.

"Over a long run, we have seen in the past that we are more competitive than on a single flying lap and we hope that history will repeat itself tomorrow, so that we can fight with those who start ahead of us. In qualifying there are at least two cars quicker than us, but then in the race the situation is different. We have to come up with a good strategy, trying to get the best out of the tyres that don't appear to wear out much here."

Massa added that he wasn't concerned by the fact that he will be just ahead of Romain Grosjean on the grid, given the Lotus man's recent run of incidents off the line.

The first corner is very tight here and we hope we can get a normal start," he said. "Grosjean starting near me? I think he understands how he must behave so I'm not particularly concerned..."