Despite having received a slap on the wrist and a 10,000 fine for his part in the controversial pit-stop incident with
Adrian Sutil in the European Grand Prix at the weekend,
Felipe Massa has insisted he was blameless instead pointing the finger firmly at his rival.
The result of the race in which Massa triumphed consummately from pole position remained in doubt even once the chequered flag had fallen in Valencia, following a near coming-together between the
Ferrari and
Force India as they left the pits together on lap 37 of the 57-lap encounter.
As the former was released from his pit box, he pulled out into the path of Sutil, with the pair continuing to travel down the narrow pit-lane side-by-side in a potentially dangerous situation. Though he denied any knowledge that his behaviour was under investigation in the aftermath of the race, Massa did seek to underline his conviction that he had done absolutely nothing wrong.
I think it wasn't very clever from his (Sutil's) side, the Brazilian asserted, as even if he went out in front of me he needed to let me by, because I was the leader and he was being lapped. When I saw him I expected him to back off. I had stopped behind him in the pit-stop and we left together. When he was passing me by I was leaving the garage, so we were side-by-side.
It was a shame to fight with him in the pit-lane. I needed to back off as we were very close and it was quite narrow and the wall was getting narrower and narrower, so I didn't want to take the risk. I lost a lot of time, but fortunately the gap (to
Lewis Hamilton behind) was enough.
I didn't do anything wrong. I think if it was under investigation it was more for Adrian; it was nothing to do with me. You need to respect the line, because we're all going at the same speed. We've seen these things happen many times especially when everybody comes into the pit-lane together both cars going side-by-side down the pit-lane, so for me it was completely normal. It's just racing.
