29/09/2006
NEWS STORY
Felipe Massa has incurred a ten-place grid penalty after Ferrari opted to change the engine in his car at the end of today's second free practice session.
The penalty comes at a time when the Italian team is locked in battle with Renault for the Constructors' Championship, the French team trailing its rival by just two points.
At this time it's not known what the exact problem is, however, the Brazilian completed a mere 8 laps in the second session, despite posting the fourth fastest time, albeit early on, before the rain began to fall.
"There is little to say as this was not a good day for me," admitted the Brazilian. "I did not go out on track this morning and then in my second run this afternoon, I had a problem with the engine and had to come back to the pits, where our engineers realised the unit would have to be changed.
"It's a shame," he continued, "as the car seemed to be well balanced right from the start and I had been able to do some good times. Of course, dropping ten places on the grid will make my race much tougher but I believe I can still put on a good performance."
"We have to look at the data and the engine itself to understand what happened," added Ross Brawn. "It is a real pity given our performance level is pretty good."
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