Formula One news

Ferrari made mistake with Massa

An error from his team is what left Felipe Massa sixteenth and out of the first phase of qualifying in Malaysia, the Brazilian has admitted. Massa, who was second in Friday practice to team-mate Kimi Räikkönen, stood with a great chance of passing through to the final phase before the big shock of Ferrari's weekend dawned on his mechanics.

Massa had been all smilies before qualifying

"I didn't do a perfect lap. I did a reasonable lap, but not a perfect lap," Massa told reporters, just minutes after being eliminated. "I went wide on the first lap at Turn 14 and then on the second lap I improved by two tenths; the team thought it was enough to be inside the top 15 and maybe I did too, to be honest, because when I got back to the pits I was still fourth. I stayed in the top seven for a while, but then as I started to drop down the order it was impossible to go out again because there was no time to do another lap."

Although the Brazilian was adamant that a critical strategic error had been made, he refused to lay the blame upon the shoulders of any one individual. "I blame myself, I blame the engineers and I blame everybody that was working in the pits looking at the lap times," the 2008 runner-up concluded. "It was a team mistake, including myself, but was also a huge wake-up call that we need to use everything we have, because every session is difficult."

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