Felipe Massa in Manila

This past weekend in racing was about the night lights at the Marina Bay with the SingTel Singapore F1 Grand Prix.

However, a couple of days before the official race preparations at the city-state, Scuderia Ferrari's Felipe Massa managed to sneak in a visit to Manila, his first-ever, thanks to Pilipinas Shell.

They brought the Brazilian into the country for a few hours to coincide with the latest release of the Shell V-Power Nitro+ Gasoline.

After his touchdown at NAIA, Felipe surprised the motorists at the Shell station in Macapagal Ave in Pasay,  personally refilling a lucky customer's vehicle with the Shell V-Power Nitro+ Gasoline. He would then head over to the Mall of Asia Atrium to share with the media and people present the relationship that Ferrari has with Shell.

Shell and Ferrari have had a long technical working relationship, with the latter providing the former with the environment for extreme conditions for the testing of their products that would be used the ordinary consumer. In fact, the Shell V-Power Nitro+ Gasoline that Filipinos can buy at their local Shell station contains 99% the same types of compounds found in the Shell V-Power race fuel that the Scuderia Ferrari cars used this past weekend.

Pilipinas Shell County Chairman Ed Chua said, “Felipe’s first visit to the Philippines is a great source of pride for Shell; not only to be able to give our consumers the unique experience of meeting a Formula One driver but also to showcase how we are able to make world-class fuel available and accessible to Filipino drivers on the road.”

Chua adds, “As we near the celebration of Pilipinas Shell’s 100 years in the country, we look forward to more milestone events such as this that will allow us to show our gratitude and appreciation to the millions of Filipinos who choose Shell every day,”

Massa also answered a few questions from the media, some of whom praised him for his career with the prancing horse, knowing that he will make way for the Iceman, Kimi Raikkonen, next season.

He spoke about the incoming new rules in F1 that makes it, according to him, feel like it's going back to zero. He feels that experience will play a major role for the upcoming season. He also says that he is very happy with how his career went (currently 185 races, 11 victories, 36 podium finishes). He hoped that he would be able to snag a podium finish, but he finished sixth in the Marina Bay, and that was with Marc Webber and Jenson Button having to drop down due to car trouble.