Felipe Massa’s car catches fire at Valencia
After a much heated 2010 season, the Ferrari driver, Felipe Massa met more fire as he stepped into the cockpit of the new 2011 team car, F150. The Brazilian’s car caught fire earlier today (Thursday) at the Ricardo Tormo track near Valencia, Spain.
The Formula 1 caravan met today for the third practice day of the first pre-season test session. After a heroic drive by his team-mate Fernando Alonso on the first two days, Massa took the wheel of the new Ferrari car for the first time today. However, only
half an hour after the session began, the Brazilian’s car spun wildly at Turn Five of the track, giving the driver a bad jerk. He finally stopped the car just outside the kerb, facing the wrong way while smoke sprouted out of the rear of the Ferrari machine.
Massa, one of the lightest weight drivers on the 2011 grids, swiftly jumped out of the car and waved over to get the marshals’ attention. It was not very late that they reached the spot with fire extinguishers. Although, fire was put out immediately, the
car was not in a good enough position to go back on the track, hence it was led towards the pits on a flatbed truck.
The team addressed the fans through its official twitter page a little time back, "It was a hot start for Felipe. His car had a small fire due to an oil leak so it will be necessary to work at length to repair it."
Ferrari has been the first team this season to launch its car. The team unveiled its F150 on the 28th of January outside the Ferrari factory at Maranello, Italy. The first two days of the practice went well for the team while Alonso marked the
fastest lap of the day at the second day’s session, on Wednesday.
Although the day has begun poorly for Massa, the team believes that it is better to discover all the possible issues and get them fixed before entering the first round of the season, the Bahrain Grand Prix, next month.
The Italian team told the reporters a little while back, "It is unlikely that the car will be back on track much before 3 in the afternoon.”
The initial two days of the test have been majorly used to adjust the F150's setup to the new Pirelli tyres and Alonso has been seen behind the Ferrari’s wheel both the days.
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