After a decent fifth place in qualifying, the Brazilian driver was able to secure a podium position in front of his teammate, also helped by Kimi Raikkonen’s disastrous start and Nico Rosberg’s engine failure.
“It was not really that fantastic a start I had, but it was really good to overtake cars and to manage to be in the position compared to the guys behind, so happy for that.”
Massa, who jumped from fifth to third at the start, maintained his position until the first and only pit-stop stage, where the German driver, Nico Rosberg, performed the undercut, securing the final podium position until three laps to the end due to an engine blowout.
However, as Massa says, it wasn’t easy to fend off teammate Valtteri Bottas. “At the end I started to lose performance on the rear tyres and he was catching me with better tyres as well. So, in the last three laps it was pretty difficult.”
Nevertheless, his satisfaction for the getting the podium was obvious.
“I’m so happy for the position. It’s really, I mean, definitely the best podium and very human. A very hot, human feeling when you see all these people.”
And later on in the press conference, when confronted to the idea of the Italian Grand Prix being removed from the calendar, the Brazilian showed his dissatisfaction.
“I don’t think they can take it out. The history of Formula One, this is history here, here is part of what is Formula One…This is part of our blood and we cannot lose this type of races.”
