Felipe Massa's retirement from second place in the Malaysian Grand Prix appears to have been the result of driver error, after he admitted to having come down heavily on a kerb just moments before he spun out of the race.
Having stormed to pole position in qualifying – comfortably seeing off the threat of world champion team-mate
Kimi Raikkonen to the tune of almost half a second in Q3 – Massa retained his lead when the lights went out, but a lightning-fast lap from the #1
Ferrari after the Brazilian came in for his first pit visit on lap 17 saw the positions reverse once both had made their stops.
From there on, Massa fell progressively away from the sister scarlet machine, until his error just over halfway through left him beached in the gravel trap between turns seven and eight, and with nowhere to go. The accident marked the five-time grand prix winner's third mistake in only the first two races of the 2008
Formula 1 campaign, leaving him still with no points on the board as the circus prepares to head to Bahrain in a fortnight's time.
“On lap 31, I clipped the kerb at the exit of turn six and hit it quite hard,” reflected the man who bemoaned the ban on traction control in the run-up to the season, “and then I lost the rear end going into the next corner. We have to check to see if the impact with the kerb damaged the car. It's a real shame because we could have brought home a one-two finish.
“Obviously this has been a very difficult start to the season for me, but there is still a very long way to go. We have great potential as was seen today, so I am still confident. Naturally I hope to make up for this soon, starting with the next race in Bahrain.”
Massa's mistake did indeed prevent what would have been a Maranello one-two following the
Scuderia's disastrous start to the season in Melbourne last weekend. That was a fact not lost on new team principal Stefano Domenicali, who presided over his first victory in the role but was left to rue a missed opportunity.
