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The subsequent pit stop dropped Massa almost to the back – ahead of only fellow delayed stragglers Romain Grosjean, Bruno Senna and Lewis Hamilton – although he eventually climbed back to 12th place.
Although that was a respectable recovery job, he was 38 seconds behind winner and teammate Fernando Alonso immediately after his wing change, and some 71 seconds behind at the flag. While clearly Alonso was going flat out in his quest to win the race, the time loss was not insignificant.
“It was a very disappointing race for the start,” said Massa. “I did a good start and then there was a Toro Rosso on front and suddenly he just braked – not braked but he slowed down in front of me. It was not normal, but maybe there was a car in front, or I don’t know.
“I went left, but there was not enough time, and I just touched my front wing on his left rear wheel. It destroyed completely my race, because I did a very slow lap, and then I stopped. Changing the front wing, it takes also a lot of time.”
Massa has scored 23 points in 2012, over half of them coming from his fourth place in Silverstone, compared to the 154 of Alonso.
Despite his frustrations, the Brazilian said he was pleased with the overall pace during the weekend.
“I think it was good, I think the car was competitive, so lap times the pace was good and consistent,” the Ferrari driver said.
“I think we’re doing a good direction in terms of the step with the car, and I think that’s very positive. I’m very happy for Fernando, who won again, and I’m just concentrating for the next race.”
Adam Cooper notched up his 27th season as a racing journalist in 2011. He has written about F1 for SPEED.com since 2005. Follow him on Twitter.
Felipe Massa’s difficult season continued in Germany when he qualified only 14th in the wet and then lost his front wing after running into the back of Daniel Ricciardo before the first corner.
Articles are gathered and rebroadcast from public feeds: source: http://formula-one.speedtv.com/article/f1-felipe-massas-frustrations-continue-in-germany/
