Massa shunt triggered by confused Karthikeyan

Felipe Massa lost a shot at a podium finish in Canada after he had to pit for a new nose in the last segment of the race, which dropped him down to sixth at the flag.

The Ferrari driver was tripped up when he came out of the pits on slicks and came across a slow moving Narain Karthikeyan.

“I feel really disappointed, because it was a great race for me,” said the Brazilian. “Everything was going very well during the whole race in the difficult conditions, and suddenly when I put the dry tyres on the out lap there was a Hispania, Karthikeyan I guess.

“He was very slow in the dry, because he was not doing right the corners, he was very slow. I passed him on the right and then my car was just driving on the ice, because it was wet. Then I lost the car, and I lost my podium. I lost even maybe the possibility to fight for the victory.

“It was a shame because it was a race to fight really there in the front.”

Karthikeyan had also just come out of the pits, and his unusual explanation for his lack of pace was that he didn’t know he had been given slicks, and had thus deliberately driven on the wet line…

“For whatever reason I didn’t get a call saying we were going to go on slicks, so in my mind I thought I was still on intermediates,” said the Indian. “And when I came out of the pits I realised that they were slicks, but it was too late because I was on the wet line and the car was sliding a lot.”