Formula One News » Stewards under fire for Massa’s Spa start Posted on 06/09/2010
The FIA has opened an enquiry into how Ferrari’s Felipe Massa was allowed to start the Belgian Grand Prix several feet in front of the sixth grid slot he was supposed to have occupied.
Although British television commentators remarked on the Brazilian’s faux pas during live coverage of the Spa-Francorchamps event, no action was taken, and Massa was able to salvage a fourth-place finish from an otherwise disappointing race for the Scuderia. That result, unlike the one in Germany for which Ferrari may this week be punished for implementing team orders, is not under threat.
“The problem was not brought to the attention of the FIA race director by either the marshals nor the automatic jump start system in time to be able to apply the appropriate penalty for jump starts,” a spokeswoman for the governing body told Reuters.
“As no further information or complaints were received before the publication of the official result on Sunday night, the classification of the Belgian Grand Prix will now remain unchanged.”
The statement carried no explanation of how Massa was able to line up out of position, with either a grid marshal or the transponder fitted to his F10 not reporting the error, but admitted that everything would be done to prevent the same happening again.
“However, the FIA are investigating the causes of the apparent failures in communication with race control in order to ensure a repetition is not possible.”
Massa being handed victory in the German Grand Prix is one possibility open to the WMSC at this week’s hearing, although Ferrari also faces further financial sanction or expulsion from either the result or championship for openly fixing the result at Hockenheim in favour of team-mate Fernando Alonso.
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