F1: Massa thought Raikkonen could have slowed

Williams Formula 1 driver Felipe Massa believes Kimi Raikkonen may have avoided his heavy accident in the British Grand Prix if he had slowed when he ran off the track.

The Ferrari driver crashed heavily on the opening lap at Silverstone when he ran wide exiting Aintree and hit a bump on the paved run-off as he attempted to rejoin the Wellington Straight.

Massa, whose view was obstructed by the Caterham of Kamui Kobayashi, attempted to avoid the Ferrari at the last minute but locked up and hit the F14 T with the left-rear of his car.

When asked if he thought Raikkonen could have returned to the track more cautiously, Massa said: "For sure. Kimi went outside of the track, he was fighting; I think maybe he passed a few cars at the start, and he wants to come back and not lose positions.

"He was unlucky because he was over a bump and lost his car [but] he did that because he didn't want to lose any positions. When you are in free practice you back off, but when you are in the race and it's like that you're trying to come back as quickly as possible and that's what he did, and he lost the car.

"When he hit the wall he just came completely into my car, I didn't know what to do so I just turned right completely and the car went sideways and I hit him.

"I'm happy that he's OK, I heard it was 47G. It's amazing – I had 27G in Canada."

Despite getting his car back to the grid under the red flag, Massa was forced to retire with driveshaft damage. He also lamented a clutch problem at the start that caused him to be left behind on the grid, as he believed he would have had the pace to join teammate Valtteri Bottas on the podium.

"It's a shame what happened at the start as well because my clutch didn't work," he added. "All these cars go very slow on the formation lap and stop in the track, and my clutch went to a very high temperature so it didn't work.

"When I saw there was a red flag there was a chance to bring the car back but we had a problem with the driveshaft. There was not enough time, it was not possible to change. The race was finished.

"The car was flying and today we would have finished both on the podium and we would have been third in the championship. So it's really a shame."