Fernando Alonso: 'Felipe Massa form good for Ferrari'

Fernando Alonso has welcomed Felipe Massa's strong start to the 2013 Formula 1 season as he believes that it will help Ferrari.

The double world champion has been beaten in both qualifying sessions so far this year by his Brazilian teammate.

The Spaniard told Autosport.com: "It is the best news for the team. We need to have a competition between the two drivers, to share information, and to compare and analyse all the data we have.

"It is not the first time that we have very close competition. It was very close the last three years as well, but it was not that close in terms of results because Felipe had some bad luck, some incidents, some mechanical problems."

Massa will start tomorrow's Malaysian Grand Prix from second place, while Alonso qualified third.