Massa ends winter period in perfect form

(GMM) Felipe Massa enjoyed a perfect end to his winter period on Thursday by becoming the only driver in six days of testing in Bahrain to break into the 1m30sec barrier.

A further sign of the Brazilian's burgeoning confidence ahead of the 2007 championship was that, despite the fact that it was his last day of pre-season running before Melbourne, he handed the F2007's new bodywork package over to Kimi Raikkonen at lunchtime.

But much like the rest of the fifteen-strong field at Sakhir, Finn Raikkonen, 27, failed to get within half a second of the leading pace, after Massa dominated the second week in the Arab Gulf.

World champion Fernando Alonso also struggled to keep up, as Mercedes' Norbert Haug observed: "I cannot promise race victories but we have improved compared to last season."

He told the newspaper Stuttgarter Nachrichten: "We have never worked as hard as this."

Heikki Kovalainen was Thursday's next best, as like Massa he too surpassed the test's previous fastest lap set by Nick Heidfeld.

"Now we have to do this in Melbourne," Massa declared to the newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport.