Felipe Massa was left to lament a “really bad day” after he crashed out of action during his first flying lap in the opening practice session for the Belgian Grand Prix.
Massa lost control of his FW40 as he negotiated the right-hander of Malmedy and suffered a sizeable impact with the tyre wall on the outside of the corner.
Williams was forced to undertake a chassis change, meaning the car needed to be re-scrutineered, a situation which was not possible prior to the second session.
As a result, Massa sat out the remainder of the day’s action, and heads into Saturday with just two slow-speed laps under his belt.
“It was a really bad day to be honest,” said a downbeat Massa.
“I didn’t expect to have this problem on the first lap of the session, I just lost the rear when I touched the inside kerb on corner seven and couldn’t really correct the car.
“The run off area is so small here and I had a crash, it was also quite a big crash, the car was completely destroyed, so we had to change the chassis.
“The FIA didn’t allow us to go out as they had to check car and they couldn’t do it, so it was really a shame as we just lost two sessions, for sure a day to forget for the team.”
Massa missed the preceding Hungarian Grand Prix due to a virus but stressed that his accident was in no way connected.
“I didn’t feel dizzy any more since the week after Hungary, so for sure I didn’t crash because of that,” he said.
Williams was also fined 10,000 Euros after it used tyres on Lance Stroll beyond the allocated time limit during the opening practice session.
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