Crash in practice causes 'day to forget' for Massa

Felipe Massa was left lamenting a crash in the first practice session for the Belgian Grand Prix that ruled him out of all of Friday's running at Spa-Francorchamps.

On his first flying lap, Massa corrected a slide and ran wide at Turn 7 – Malmedy – where he skipped through the gravel and hit the barrier with the left-hand side of the car. The damage was so severe that Williams needed to change Massa's chassis but the need to re-scrutineer it on Saturday morning meant he was unable to run in FP2.

Calling it "a day to forget for the team," Massa explained the cause of the accident and said it was unavoidable due to the small run-off area.

Related Stories

"A really bad day, to be honest – I didn't expect to have this problem in the first lap of the session," Massa said. "On the first lap I was just trying to understand the track and when I touched the inside curb at corner seven the rear of the car just came around and I lost the rear.

"I couldn't correct it, I just went into the run-off area and it was a very small run-off area so I couldn't avoid the crash. It was also such a big crash that the chassis was damaged. So we had to change the chassis and then we couldn't get the OK from the FIA to run in the afternoon, so we lost two sessions. It's definitely a very negative day for the team."

The incident leaves Massa with limited time to get comfortable with his car on Saturday before qualifying, having only completed two laps in total.

"Yeah, I hope we can fix everything and understand the car. I don't have enough time to understand the car; this is a shame, but I really hope tomorrow can be a completely different day.

"I think when you miss two sessions, for sure it doesn't help. You can learn the car and understand the setup and track and everything, but we will try everything we can tomorrow."

Massa was picked up by the medical car and checked and cleared from the medical center following the crash.

This piece has been edited for clarity since its initial publication.