'Alonso's 'good friends' helped him escape punishment - Massa'

Felipe Massa raises the suggestion Fernando Alonso's good relationship with the US GP stewards helped him escape punishment for their clash

Ollie Barstow

28 Oct 2016

'Alonso's 'good friends' helped him escape punishment - Massa'

Felipe Massa has expressed his frustration towards the race Stewards from the United States Grand Prix, after his contact with former team-mate Fernando Alonso went unpunished.

The McLaren driver was charging through the top 10 late in the race on a fresher set of tyres when he came up against Massa's Williams for fifth position. After making a lunge into Turn 16 against his former Ferrari team-mate, he ran into the Williams and barged his way into fifth, while Massa was left with a slow puncture.

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The contact between the two was investigated by the Stewards after the race, although it was deemed a racing incident and no penalty was handed to Alonso, an outcome the Brazilian feels could have been somewhat underhand.

"My only thought is that he [Alonso] had good friends there," Massa said on the topic of race Stewards.
"Especially also for not only my incident. If you look from the top it looks amazing what he did. If you look from his inside camera he was far away. He was not close enough to try to overtake, he didn't brake.

"When he braked he locked the wheels and just hit me. If I was not there he was never going to go through the corner. Never. Which definitely the stewards need to evaluate, need to have the decision. Sometimes it is a little bit inconsistent, sometimes not. Maybe sometimes it is correct or not."

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As Massa was left questioning the Stewards' decision, he believes that he wasn't the only victim of Alonso's aggressive drive during the latter stages of the race in Austin.

"But then he had another one (with Sainz) that he was outside braking, he braked too late. He went off the track and everybody is happy. So at least one of these two incidents he was supposed to get a penalty. Like many other drivers have by doing that, or some other drivers didn't by doing even a little bit too much. So [many] inconsistencies."

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