Formula One news

Massa blames strategy change for lost victory

Felipe Massa was left rueing an in-race change of pit stop strategy from two stops to one. The Brazilian claimed that the decision cost him a chance of victory in today's Monaco Grand Prix.

"I was still able to put down a very good pace at the start and I knew our strategy was working well and then we changed the strategy to a one-stop and fuelled to the end of the race which was a mistake," Massa said. "The track was getting drier and we expected some rain to come, but it didn't and by the time Robert stopped, I wanted to stop again, but it was a difficult decision with the team and we just took too long and lost the position."

"It's a shame we made a mistake on the strategy and I'm happy with the result because the championship is long and we have a great car," he added.

"All of us had a moment today," Massa went on. "In a race like that it's so easy to have a small loss of concentration and if you just brake a little bit over the line you can't stop the car. I had a difficult race and lost the radio for about 20 laps and couldn't talk to the team, just had to look at the pit boards and didn't know what was going on in the race."

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