From the outside, Felipe Massa appeared to be serene and unruffled throughout the Turkish GP as he secured victory. In reality, it would seem as if the young Brazilian was rattled by the unexpected challenge of Lewis Hamilton.
On a surprise three-stop strategy, the Englishman kept pace with Massa from start to finish, and even overtook the Ferrari around the half-way stage of the race. While one thought was that Massa had allowed Hamilton to pass him without much of a confrontation because he realised that his rival was on a different, less threatening strategy, the Brazilian was in fact caught entirely unawares by the speed of the McLaren.
"We had to keep him calm by telling him that Hamilton was three-stopping and the race would come back to him if he kept his head," Rob Smedley, Massa's race engineer, revealed to ITV.
Massa himself made no attempt to deny he was alarmed by the sight of the McLaren charging past him.
"It was a very difficult race," he reflected. "Lewis was pushing hard from the start, I thought he was light, but when I did my pit stop I thought he was straight away there so I thought maybe had less fuel, and the team told me he was on three stops and for sure that was a help.
"He was strong and I could not hold him on track so he passed me. I knew I still had a big chance to win the race as three stops was quite optimistic."
He added: "It was difficult, but we made it. A third win in Turkey is just amazing."
The Brazilian also concedes that there was a time he was worried that Ferrari may have chosen the wrong tyres. "It was a very difficult day to choose the tyres because the difference was not so big from the soft and the hard. Even on the first lap and during the run, the hard was much better on Friday but we were really keen to use the soft today.
"Then I saw Lewis going very quickly with the hard and we thought maybe that was a little bit of a mistake but on the last run the car was easy on hards so maybe the right choice was to choose the hard."
Looking ahead to the next race, the Monaco GP, the Brazilian reckons Ferrari could face a tough challenge as the streets of Monte Carlo have in the past suited the McLarens. "McLaren were very strong there (last season). We have been working a lot on the set-up for Monte Carlo, so hopefully we will have a good car and can win there."
Massa has secured 28 points from a possible 30 in the last three races and now trails team-mate Kimi Raikkonen in the Drivers' Standings by seven points.
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