Felipe Massa is hopeful of a dry race, believing yesterday's sodden qualifying disguised the true performance of his Williams. The Brazilian had been up as high as third before the rain started falling, though with the FW36 unsuited to the damp conditions finished the session just ninth.

"We had the worst conditions we could have had for our car," he lamented.

Williams enjoyed one of the smoothest winters of any team yet like all this year there are lingering concerns the car may not last the distance. Fuel consumption is also a worry with some drivers expected to begin saving fuel almost immediately the race begins. It will lead to a confusing race but one that presents opportunities for the likes of Massa.

"You always see many things happen in the race," the 31-year-old explained. "You have to be ready for everything.

"You don't know how many cars will finish," he continued. "You don't know how many cars need to save more fuel than other cars. There's so many things.

"The race is long, many things can happen here. I pretty much showed that we have a much better car for the dry for the race than we showed here in the wet.

"Let's wait and see how the weather's going to be."

Mat Coch