Massa happy with finishing on the podium

The Brazilian confesses to missing life on the podium after securing his first top-three finish of the season at the German Grand Prix.

Felipe Massa leads Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel on his way to third place in Germany. Vettel eventually finished ahead of the Brazilian.

Felipe Massa confessed to missing life on the podium after securing his first top-three finish of the season at yesterday's German Grand Prix. The Brazilian finished third in his Ferrari to finish on the rostrum for the first time since last November's Brazilian Grand Prix. Having started eighth, an excellent start that saw him move upto fourth set him up for his best result of the season.

"To be honest I miss to be here, to be in top three, but it was a fantastic race," he said. "I did a fantastic start, passed many cars. "I am happy, everyone in the team did a great job with the pitstops, so I think I am having a good result like this, a podium will definitely motivate the team to keep pushing hard, preparing a good car for the end of the championship." It was a good day for Sebastian Vettel as the Red Bull-Renault driver moved upto second in the standings with his second place finishand now trails title leader Jenson Button by 21 points.

He recovered from being sixth at the end of the first lap and he said: "All the Kers [Kinetic Engery Recovery Systems] cars got past me, I started fourth and then went into first corner eighth. "I was lucky to have the right strategy, in the end it brought us back to the correct position." Button, who struggled for the second successive race in cool track conditions on his way to fifth, said that it was a bonus that Mark Webber's Red Bull had won the race rather than Vettel's: "It's quite good because Vettel's now got him right behind him [Webber] in the championship, and they'll be taking points off each other. If Vettel had won here it would have been a disaster."

But Button's teammate Rubens Barrichello was furious with his day as he finished sixth, after leading early on. Tyre problems and a delayed second pit-stop hurt his race, and he said: "I'm terribly upset with the way things have gone today. Because it was a very good show of how to lose a race. "I did everything I had to do. I had to go first into the first corner, and that's what I did. "Then they [Brawn] made me lose the race basically.

"If we keep going on like this, then we'll end up losing both championships, and that would be terrible." [e-mail]