Ferrari team-mates Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen are still free to race each other as the title battle reaches its climax, team boss Jean Todt has insisted.

Massa’s impressive victory ahead of his team-mate in Turkey over the weekend pushed him back ahead of the Finn in the drivers’ standings, although the drivers still remain just one point apart and 15 and 16 points respectively adrift of Lewis Hamilton.

But despite the possibility that they will continue taking points off other and effectively slow their pursuit of Hamilton, Todt remains adamant that both will be given an equal chance to catch the points leader.

“At the moment there is no plan to make any kind of strategy between one or the other driver,” Todt said.

“It would be something that would be inappropriate.

“Our drivers are doing such a good job, after 12 grands prix, with just one point difference.”

The Frenchman adds that but for mistakes on the team’s part both drivers would have been much closer to Hamilton in the standings anyway.

“Most of the problems they had were because of some mistakes that we did,” he said.

“They made some mistakes, but that is normal.

“We are all human.”

Todt had set his drivers’ the target before the Turkish race of finishing on the podium in each of the remaining six races to give it a change of beating its British rival to the world titles.

And after Ferrari’s dominant 1-2 trimmed McLaren’s constructors’ advantage to just 11 points, the Frenchman says the team heads to Monza in two week’s time with renewed confidence.

“We feel the championship is still open,” he said.

“It will be tough, but it is always tough.

“And as I always said, we will try the best until the end and I believe we still can carry this on.”

Taken From www.itv-f1.com

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