Should Massa be in a Ferrari seat? That’s a hot topic if you look around forums and message boards in the F1 world. Seems to be a lot of people are voicing there opinions and most of it negative for the Brazilian. I’m undecided on his race craft and agree this could be better, but as a far as I’m concerned he’s one of the best qualifiers out there at the moment – a bit like a young Trulli, who with age has also improved what used to be debatable race performances. I’ll let the kids in the forums have their fun because for me it’s the stats which do the talking.

This season’s stats for Massa in qualifying read 6 front rows out of 10 races, with 3 of them being poles. Of the other 4, Silverstone (9th) should be ignored because of a pit error causing him to miss the lap. Canada (6th) is the only real poor show considering the other two were 3rd and 4th.

I don’t have data for this but I remember a few times were Massa had also set the fastest lap in the first round of attempts causing his odds to plummet, only to be piped at the post (I think these were Bahrain and Germany.) That means of the 6 front rows out of 10 races you would have been shown an opportunity to trade out at odds of evens or less.

It’s hard to see past a McLaren pole but with Lewis @ 2.4 there’s no interest for me there. Heikki may be real threat to him in what he described as his best race last season. Never write off the Ferrari’s and Kubica could also pose a threat.

By Wednesday the markets are usually met in middle for the top runners but this time round there seems to be a big divide. Both Massa and Kimi are available to back at 4.5/4.9 and lay at 5.9/6.6 respectively. The bookmakers odds don’t show as much variance so what’s going on? - nobody’s seems to want to trade the Ferrari’s. As I type a total of £6486 has been matched in the Market with £4625 of that on Lewis! The Ferrari drivers are roughly responsible for £400 each and interestingly £750 on Kubica.

I have been matched for 5.6 on Massa to get pole. For me, once again the opportunity is too good to miss. He was quicker the Kimi at this track last year but missed Q3 because somehow Ferrari forgot to fuel his car! I will also keep an eye on Kubica’s performance and fuel loads in practice.

It’s looking like Heidfeld’s odds to reach Q3 are going to be a reasonable price so I will leave this alone, unless they increase beyond 1.4’s in which case I would want to back him.

There’s not much else to look at for now so I will wait to see what Friday practice brings.