A small fire that subsequently broke out at the back of the car was extinguished by the marshals, and though its driver was thankfully uninjured, less could be said for his F2008, which required extensive repair work in order to allow the 27-year-old to make it back out on-track again for the final hour of the afternoon session.

“It was a big crash,” Massa acknowledged, “but that's part of the game and I have had much worse accidents in my career. I didn't see any flags and I had approached the corner in the usual way, and then I totally lost control of the car under braking. I tried to slow down, but the impact was still pretty violent.

“The most important thing is that we were able to fix the car and in the end we didn't lose that much time, as it wasn't planned for me to do many laps in the morning. I want to thank all the lads for the work they did – they were fantastic, and they didn't stop for a moment right up to the very end of the second session.

“We came to Silverstone with a good starting point after the tests we did here last week, and I think we are going in the right direction. I am pleased with the balance of the car and its performance on both types of tyre we have here from Bridgestone.”

Team-mate Kimi Raikkonen was never quite on Massa's pace, ending both the morning session and the afternoon – when the two scarlet machines placed an unaccustomedly lowly eighth and twelfth on the timing screens – almost four tenths in arrears.

The Finn – who triumphed in the British Grand Prix twelve months ago and also has fond memories of the circuit from his victorious Formula Renault days – encountered balance woes throughout the day, but remained hopeful of turning his weekend around.

“This morning things were not so bad,” he admitted, “while in the afternoon I had a bit of a struggle to find the best settings on the car, which was not working as well as it had done in last week's test. We have to look at the data to understand why.

“Obviously, the order in the second session is not representative of the relative strengths in the field, but I am still reasonably confident and if we manage to find a good set-up, then we can fight for the top places.”

The Scuderia's team principal Stefano Domenicali and technical director Luca Baldisserri were full of praise for the work of the mechanics in mending Massa's heavily-damaged machine, but mindful of the work that still remained ahead – particularly with rain expected for both qualifying and the race.

“First and foremost I want to praise our mechanics,” stated Domenicali, “who did an extraordinary job in repairing Felipe's car. Given the amount of damage and the short time available, they were really great.