German GP: Massa blames Magnussen for first lap collision

At the first corner of the Grand Prix, Felipe Massa, then in 3rd place, and Kevin Magnussen, then in 4th, collided. The Brazilian, on a tighter trajectory, dove to the inside where the Dane was positioned. The Williams, climbing onto the left front wheel of the McLaren, flipped over and slid for about thirty meters. Massa got out by himself and uninjured, while Magnussen was relegated to the back of the pack. The race was neutralized for one lap following this incident.

As soon as he got out of his car, the 2008 vice-world champion accused his young colleague, guilty according to him of not braking enough: « I was in front, I was taking the corner ahead of him. If anyone needs to be careful, it’s the car behind. I haven’t reviewed the accident yet, but normally the car behind should brake. »

« In this corner, you can’t have three cars side-by-side, and I slowed down a bit so as not to be next to my teammate, » the Paulista explained to Autosport, before stating: « It’s usually a guy coming from GP2 who causes such an accident… It was scarier to watch than to experience. I’m fine. I didn’t suffer any impact. The only thing is that I’m so disappointed with what happened: another race where a car takes me out. So I’m really disappointed. »

This is the fourth time this season that Felipe Massa has been involved in a collision and the third time it’s happened in the first lap, after Australia (hit by Kamui Kobayashi at the start) and Great Britain (colliding with Kimi Räikkönen). The other incident was the final lap collision in Canada with Sergio Perez.

The commissioners, who investigated this collision, quickly decided not to impose any penalties, implicitly indicating that it was a racing incident.

Kevin Magnussen, for his part, believes there wasn’t much he could do: « Obviously, if I had somewhere else to go, I wouldn’t have had this contact. I haven’t seen the replay. It’s a bit difficult to comment if you haven’t seen the accident. I’m sorry about the situation, but I did my best to try and avoid it, but there was really nothing I could do. I wasn’t really trying to overtake Felipe, so having contact with him was very unfortunate. »

Fell to the back of the pack, how did the McLaren driver judge his race, which he ultimately finished 9th? « Not really appreciable. I think we could have had a good race if we hadn’t had that accident in the first corner. It’s not the best thing that can happen. » Despite everything, he highlights the positive: « I’m happy to leave with some points, and I hope we can maintain the pace in Hungary and have a good race. »