GP Brazil – Felipe Massa: “The race was incredible”
After the race, Felipe Massa was very happy to have finished on the podium since he thought his race was ruined after a five-second penalty for speeding in the pits during his first stop.
During his home race, Felipe Massa experienced ups and downs and believed he had lost the podium, which is why he had a big smile after the Grand Prix in an atmosphere worthy of a football match at the Maracana.
« I think the race was incredible, everything happened in my race today. I am so happy, but not with my mistake, » he stated.
Indeed, he explains his misadventure during the first pit stop: « I just had a problem when I entered for the pit stop, I pressed the limiter but it didn’t engage. I think I could have lost the podium with this mistake and the five-second penalty. I was so disappointed that it happened, so I pushed even harder, but the problem is that you can’t push that hard because you degrade the tires too much. I managed to take care of the tires and I quickly got into a good rhythm. »
Perhaps a victim of emotion when taking his last set of tires, the Sao Paulo native then stopped in front of the wrong pit, at McLaren, which had already happened last year when Lewis Hamilton stopped at his former McLaren team in China. According to the Brazilian, the incident was related to a change in the paddock layout: They changed our garage for this race, and we are much more towards the middle, and McLaren with the same color, they were there, I thought it was our garage.
« So I lost a lot of time with that but I attacked again, managing the tires and widening the gap with Jenson [Button] once more. It was really a fantastic race. People are always there, they’re shouting, all this energy is hard to explain. Incredible! » he concluded, filled with joy.
