That result left the Brazilian – the only driver not to be lapped on Sunday - five points adrift in the championship standings.

But Massa is more than confident that he will be able to make up the gap by the end of the season.

“The championship is still looking good for me after these important points for third place,” he told www.autosport.com.

“We have done five races, I am five points behind Fernando and Lewis and there are still 12 races to go.

“That’s not a big difference and I feel that everything is still 100% open in the fight for the title. But we need to be ahead of them.

“I have won two races and Fernando has done the same and the difference as I said is five points.

“So consistency is what matters over the rest of the season and that is why it is always important to be on the podium.

“My worst result this year is a sixth place, which is actually not that bad, but you have to make sure you are always in the top three.”

Massa does not think Ferrari will lag as far behind McLaren for the rest of the season, starting in Canada in 11 days.

“I am really happy with my personal performance over the weekend,” he added.

“However, we were not so happy with our car performance at this track.

“But we managed to limit the damage and third place is not a disaster, when you look at how close and competitive the championship battle is at the moment.

“But certainly, we cannot be 100% happy with the result, given that our rivals filled the top two places. They have some elements of their package that worked better at this circuit than ours.

“But my personal opinion, and I don’t know if it is right, is that it was not just McLaren being impressive in Monaco, it was also Ferrari being weak.”