Planet-F1

Haug: Felipe ruined Lewis' race

Sunday 12th October 2008

Although McLaren are not too downbeat after watching Lewis Hamilton's Championship lead decrease to five points, Mercedes motorsport boss Norbert Haug believes Felipe Massa was the main reason why the Brit failed to pick up points in Japan.

Hamilton started the race in pole position, but he made a poor start and soon plummeted down the order after Massa drove into him on lap two. The McLaren driver was forced to make an unscheduled pit stop and dropped to last place. To add insult to injury, he later received a drive-through penalty for an incident with Kimi Raikkonen in the first corner.

Massa was also handed a drive-through penalty for the incident with Hamilton, but the Ferrari driver managed to crawl his way back into the race and eventually finished in seventh place.

Haug is adamant that Massa destroyed Hamilton's hopes of finishing in the top eight at Fuji Speedway.

"A chaotic start and one lap later Felipe ruined Lewis' race when he first ran wide and then cut the chicane short and pushed Lewis into a spin," Haug said.

"The next grand prix will be held already next weekend and neither Felipe nor Ferrari benefited too much from today's result.

"Despite Felipe's action, Lewis still leads the Drivers' Championship."

Team boss Ron Dennis admits the decision to hand Hamilton a drive-through penalty for his first-corner incident with Raikkonen caught the team by surprise.

"We were a bit surprised that Lewis was given a penalty in respect of the first-corner incident, simply because we've all seen similar first-corner incidents that triggered no such penalty," Dennis said.

"Drivers miss braking points, they run wide; these things happen. Lewis is still five points clear in the Drivers' Championship, with two races to go, and I know that our whole team will dig deep from here on in."

Massa, meanwhile, insists it was a "It was a racing incident. I was a little bit wide at the corner and he put the car inside while I was outside.

"Then he pushed me a little bit close to the gravel and then I put two wheels on the gravel and he closed in and we touched. I was already on the gravel so I couldn't do anything and we touched."