Formula 1: Felipe Massa’s F150 catches fire in Valencia
Ferrari driver Felipe Massa drove his new Ferrari F150 at the first pre-season test session in Valencia for two days without any problem but unfortunately, the Brazilian’s car caught fire and disabled him to take part in the final quarter of the session.
Massa’s car engine caught fire at turn three of the circuit and it is believed that the incident was caused due to an oil leak.
“Unfortunately the lubricant ended up on the exhausts which led to a small fire breaking out and that caused some damage to the car,” Ferrari revealed.
Massa finished in 5th place ahead of his teammate at the final day of the test session in Valencia but the surprise of the day was Robert Kubica’s amazing performance.
Kubica topped the timesheets after driving for more than 100 laps and was followed by Force India’s Adrian Sutil even though the India-based team were using their old car for the testing session.
Felipe Massa had a disastrous 2010 Formula 1 season as he was unable to secure points consistently and as a result, fell way behind in the race for the title.
Other than that, because of Massa’s inconsistent performance in 2010, Ferrari were unable to challenge McLaren and Red Bull in the constructors’ standings.
Massa had an almost fatal accident at the 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix after which he was unable to compete for the rest of the season. Many believe that Felipe has not been able to perform at his best since that accident but Ferrari’s boss Luca di Montezemolo
is confident that Felipe will be back once again in 2011 and prove that he still has what it takes to be the best in Formula 1.
The next test session is expected to take place in Jerez, Spain and it is going to be interesting to see how the top running teams perform there.
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