Felipe Massa believed that his experience enabled him to claim ninth position and two World Championship points in the Monaco Grand Prix on Sunday, with the veteran Brazilian playing it cool when coming under pressure from Sergio Perez.
The Williams Martini Racing driver admitted he was managing a brake issue from the opening lap around the principality, but was able to extract the best result he could achieve, despite having started from fourteenth on the grid.
Perez did get through but then clashed with Daniil Kvyat, with the Mexican pitting and the Russian retiring, promoting Massa up two places into ninth, where he remained until the chequered flag.
“I’m happy with the result and scoring points today,” admitted Massa. “We had brake issues from the start and I had to manage them from the very first lap. I’ve never had to do that before in my career!
“At the end, I could see [Sergio] Perez trying to pass me on his fresh tyres and I thought ‘stay here and just try to get some points’, which is exactly what happened.
“My experience as a driver definitely helped me to get points today, so I’m very happy.”
