Massa suffers costly engine failure.

Ferrari's assault on both world championship titles has been dealt a minor blow by the realisation that Felipe Massa will have to change his engine before Saturday's practice and qualifying sessions, thus costing him ten places on the grid for Sunday's Chinese Grand Prix.

The Brazilian suffered a problem with his V8 during the second of Friday's two practice sessions and, despite finishing fourth overall on the day, ended the afternoon back in the garage with engineers swarming over the unit.

"There is little to say as this was not a good day for me," Massa sighed, "I did not go out on track this morning and, then, in my second run this afternoon, I had a problem with the engine and had to come back to the pits, where our engineers realised the unit would have to be changed.

"It's a shame, as the car seemed to be well balanced right from the start and I had been able to do some good times. Of course, dropping ten places on the grid will make my race much tougher but I believe I can still put on a good performance."

Although still expected to qualify near the front on time alone, the Brazilian will have more of a fight on his hands if he is to play adequate back-up to both Michael Schumacher's individual title ambitions, as well as secure both his own third place overall and help Ferrari towards the constructors' crown. Ferrari again showed good pace on what were essentially old tyres, and appeared to have the upper hand on rivals Renault, despite neither team filling a top three place in either session.

"Today's work schedule, as usual on a Friday, centred on evaluating the Bridgestone tyres on finding the best set-up," team boss Jean Todt confirmed, "It was bad start to our Shanghai weekend, however, as, unfortunately, a problem was discovered on the engine in Felipe Massa's car and now it will have to be changed. All in all, though, we should be competitive."

Todt's words will come as some comfort to Schumacher, who has apparently been told that his engine shows no signs of repeating Massa's problem, with technical director Ross Brawn also certain that the fault was a one-off.

"The day was spoilt by the problem with Felipe's engine, which will see him lose ten places on the grid, and we will have to look at the data and the engine itself to understand what happened," the Briton said, "It is a real pity given our performance level is pretty good."