Gazzetta puts Massa dead last in mid-season ranking

If the editors of Europe's top specialist publications were in charge at Ferrari, Felipe Massa would have no chance of signing a new contract for 2013.

We reported on Monday that Germany's authoritative Auto Motor und Sport had ranked the Brazilian just 17th on its mid-season ranking of the best drivers of this year.

Now, the influential Italian sports daily La Gazzetta dello Sport has published its mid-season ranking -- and Brazilian Massa is dead last with a meagre score of 4.5 out of 10.

Even HRT's Narain Karthikeyan (5/10) has his head above Massa's, but also struggling in Gazzetta's eyes is McLaren's Jenson Button, who was classified behind Charles Pic and in a lowly 20th.

In contrast, Gazzetta gave Massa's teammate Fernando Alonso a perfect ten, with Lewis Hamilton (8.5) and Kimi Raikkonen (8/10) second and third, ahead of the Red Bull drivers and then Romain Grosjean.

The newspaper said that while Alonso got "101 per cent from the car without major errors", the time has come after seven years at Ferrari for a "change of air" for Massa.

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