Massa is down but not out

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FELIPE MASSA

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Tuesday 5th August 2008

Felipe Massa may be down after being robbed of the victory in Budapest but the Brazilian insists he's not out of the title fight.

Massa had been on course for a much-needed ten points in the Championship race on Sunday afternoon, however, three laps from the end of the 70-lap grand prix his Ferrari engine expired, leaving him stranded on the pit straight.

It was a disappointing result for the 27-year-old, who had earlier pulled off an aggressive move on Lewis Hamilton to take the lead of the race.

The loss of the ten points means the Ferrari driver was overhauled in the standings by his team-mate Kimi Raikkonen while Hamilton continues to lead.

But despite now being eight points behind Hamilton, Massa is still confident that he can win this year's Drivers' title.

"We still need to push very hard in the development of the car and the reliability but even in a worse case like this, we're still in the Championship, completely,"he told the International Herald Tribune.

"We're still in the fight, (and) we'll be pushing very hard over the break. I'm in a very strong position in terms of me, so I think I'm still growing a lot and learning race-to-race, and that can help for the Championship.

"The confidence is the most important thing, and I think for the moment everything is completely open; we have three cars in a very small gap in terms of points."