12/06/2011
NEWS STORY
Felipe Massa has admitted his anger with Hispania driver Narain Karthikeyan following the incident which cost him a podium and possibly a win.
The Ferrari driver was looking good for a strong points finish, having led the race at one stage, when he came up to lap backmarker Karthikeyan on lap 53. Unfortunately the two touched, sending the Brazilian towards the barriers and consequently having to pit for a new nose.
In a dramatic move on the final straight of an equally dramatic race, Massa was able to make a move on Kobayashi that secured him sixth place. However, he remained frustrated and angry.
"I can't draw much satisfaction from this sixth place, given the potential we had here," he said. "My chances of finishing on the podium and also of fighting for the win given how things went, just evaporated when I was passing Karthikeyan. He was going very slowly on the dry line but then, as I was passing him on the wet, he accelerated and I lost control of the car ending up in the wall. Thanks to the next Safety Car, I was able to catch up to the pack and then, in the end, I passed a few cars to get as high as sixth.
"I am angry," he admitted, "there is no point denying it. We qualified well and we were in the top three up until the red flag. Then what happened happened and it was all over."
For his part in the incident, Karthikeyan - who finished fourteenth on the road - was handed a 20s penalty which dropped him to seventeenth.