No more mistakes, says confident Massa

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HOCKENHEIM, Germany (AFP) - Brazilian Felipe Massa is confident he can put his Silverstone nightmare behind him and return to winning ways in Sunday's German Grand Prix.

The Ferrari driver said he was sure the team had corrected the mistakes that saw both him and his team-mate, defending world champion Finn Kimi Raikkonen, struggle so badly at the British Grand Prix.

"Everybody can have a bad day, but I had a very bad weekend," he said on Friday, referring to the Silverstone race.

"It started on Friday with a crash then on Saturday there was the problem with the pit-stop, and then on Sunday it was a disastrous race.

"After Silverstone, the team at Maranello worked a lot on many different aspects, such as improving the procedures at the track.

"I won't give you any details, because this is confidential information, but we know we have to act to ensure that certain mistakes don't happen again.

"We know that we have a good car, very competitive, but we didn't use its full potential at the last race mainly because it was a race under very special conditions (wet)."

Despite spinning his car five times and ending up last of the 13 finishers, Massa is still at the top of the standings with 48 points, sharing the position with Lewis Hamilton and Raikkonen.

On Friday, Massa clocked the second-fastest time in opening practice for Sunday's German Grand Prix.

"As I've said before, there's still a long way to go, everything can happen and the championship is wide open," he said.

"I'm not worried about the criticism after the British GP. I've had lots before and it has never affected me because I know what I have to and what I want to do.

"The opinions of people from outside the team don't count for much, especially when they say one day that you're a phenomenon and the next they say you're a failure: I don't let it influence me in either case."