Williams Martini F1 Team/Glenn Dunbar ©
In his interview with the media yesterday, Williams driver Felipe Massa admits he thought he let a certain podium finish slip out of his grasp with his mistake in the pitlane at Interlagos.
The Brazilian started his home race third behind Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton and he made a clean start to settle behind the two Mercedes drivers.
However, he was caught speeding in the pitlane during his first stop and was handed a five-second stop-go penalty.
He took the penalty during his second stop and also made another mistake in the pitlane when he went to the McLaren pits instead of the Williams one, but still managed to finish third by a comfortable margin.
In his interview with the media yesterday, Massa enjoyed the race yesterday and was happy with the result but not his mistake in the pit lane. Massa stated the following:-
‘I think the race was amazing, everything happened in my race today. I am so happy, but not happy with my mistake today.
‘I just had a problem when I came for the [first] pitstop, I pushed my limiter but it didn’t go. I think I could have lost the podium in that mistake with the penalty for five seconds.’
I would have to agree with Massa and say that he had a fantastic race in front of his home crowd and managed to reward them with a podium finish to celebrate. Even though Massa quite rightly will not be happy with his mistake that led to him receiving an penalty for speeding in the pitlane, it is clear that something went wrong and he could have lost the podium finish as a result but he managed not to which was great to see.
Further on in his interview yesterday, Massa admits that he was disappointed that his mistake happened and had to push harder to make up for it even though the race was hard on his tyres. Massa added the following:-
‘I was so disappointed it happened, then I was pushing even harder, but the problem is you cannot push so hard as you use too much of the tyres.
‘I managed to take care of the tyres and managed to have a good pace straight away.’
Of course Massa will be disappointed that it happened and pushed even harder to make up for that mistake despite tyre wear being an issue during the course of the weekend at Interlagos. But Massa was able to do that and look after his tyres and was rewarded with a well deserved podium for his efforts at his home race.
But overall despite the penalty Massa received in the race, he did everything he needed to do to score a podium to give his home fans something to celebrate. And Massa did a great job and showed that if he has the car underneath him, he can deliver and there is no question that the support he received from his fans this weekend motivated him even further.
And all Massa has to do is to keep the momentum for the past few races going and ensure that he does everything possible to achieve the best result possible in Abu Dhabi in a few weeks time and end his first season with Williams on a high.
