Ferrari's Felipe Massa paid the penalty for a massive error of judgement in qualifying today which left the Brazilian trailing in 16th place on the Malaysian Grand Prix grid.

Massa seized pole position at the Sepang circuit a year ago but any hopes of a repeat ahead of Sunday's race were dashed when the driver and his team set a time they felt was fast enough to keep them in the top 15 and advance to the second session of qualifying.

The complacency proved fatal and Massa was left to rue the mistake and look on from the pitlane as Brawn GP's Jenson Button went on to grab a second consecutive pole position of the season.

"I went out on a new set of soft tyres and after an improved second lap, the team and myself thought the time was quick enough to be in the top 15," last year's world championship runner-up told reporters.

"When I got back to the pits I was fourth... stayed seventh for a while. Then when I started to drop it was impossible to go out again as there was no time to do another lap."

CHANGE TACTICS

Massa said Ferrari must now change their tactics in qualifying since the field is far more competitive than in recent seasons, where an early fast time would have been enough to secure a safe passage into the next round.

"Maybe the past is still very much in our minds," he added.

"Then it was easy to go out and set a fast time on the hard tyres and stay in the top 10. Now we need to use all our tyres in qualifying as its the only way to reach the next session."

The Brazilian also noted that the mistake acted as a wake-up call for the team in terms of understanding exactly where they stood in this year's pecking order.

"After the first race (neither Ferrari finished in Melbourne a week ago) and this qualifying we understand even more that we are not as competitive as we thought we were," he added.

"Other teams are a little bit ahead of us and we don't have the downforce to warm up the tyres very quickly. So we may have to change our strategy in the future.

"This morning, I thought my car was good enough for a top-five position but now I believe I would be lucky to be in the top seven."

Looking to tomorrow's race, Massa is hoping for wet weather in order to improve his chances of earning points.

"The rain could be a lottery so maybe it is our best hope of getting into the points," he said.

"I just hope to have a good race. The car has good pace and if I drive well, we have an opportunity to pick up some points... that is my aim now."