Felipe Massa: “I was completely on the gravel…”

Felipe Massa had a lucky escape from a major moment on the exit of Parabolica in the second practice session at Monza while gunning for fastest time.

The Brazilian ran wide and went through the gravel trap, but by keeping his foot on the throttle managed to drive his way out and get back on the track. He was then able to dive straight into the pit lane to catch his breath.

“When I arrived in the corner it reminded me of Kimi, as I tried to do a bit of rallying!,” joked Massa. “No I mean I was just very lucky. I was behind Michael [Schumacher], I was on a very good lap, I was supposed to improve my lap time on that lap. It was one and a half tenths quicker than my best lap until the last corner, I tried everything to keep the lap, but when Michael was in front, I lost a little bit of grip best and was out.

“I was very, very lucky. Even when I went out of the track, I was completely on the gravel, sideways, and I thought I was going to crash on the back, I kept the throttle completely open, to see if it could help. And it helped completely to turn the car and pass the wall!”

Meanwhile Massa finished the session third, just behind his team mate, after the pair had been only eighth and ninth in the morning.

“I think today was not an easy day for us to understand many directions in the car. Usually this is a different track to most of the tracks we race, and finding a good balance and good direction was not so easy. But anyway we improved quite a lot between both session, and at the end I’m quite happy with the balance, quite happy with the car, looking at how we started the first session and how we finished the second.”

Massa confirmed that both Ferrari drivers had kept the F-Duct on the car all day: “We used the F-Duct all the time, we didn’t do anything special. We tried different wings, that was all.”