Felipe Massa felt a lot of points were lost by the first lap puncture during the Spanish Grand Prix on Sunday, with the Brazilian finishing down in thirteenth at the chequered flag.
The Williams Martini Racing driver had made a good start to pass both Sergio Perez and Fernando Alonso heading into the first turn, but with chaos going on ahead of him, he took evasive action and clipped Alonso’s car, pushing the Spaniard into the gravel trap at turn two and causing himself the puncture.
Without that, Massa felt fourth place was definitely on offer, but the failure to score points saw the team drop down to sixth place in the Constructors’ Championship behind Scuderia Toro Rosso.
“I’m so disappointed,” said Massa. “I had a fantastic start, passing Perez and Alonso on the straight, and then I got to turn one and saw the incident ahead.
“I then got to turn two and Alonso was suddenly on the outside of the corner, we touched and I picked up a puncture, which ruined my race.
“We had a big opportunity to finish fourth today, which I think I could have done because we had good pace. It’s really painful because we lost so many points today as a team.”
