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COOLEST WAY POSSIBLE: When Felipe Massa Decided to ‘Drift’ into the Pitlane

Published 06/25/2020, 1:45 PM EDT

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Felipe Massa has had a long and successful career in F1. The Brazilian driver won 11 Grand Prix’s and bagged a total of 41 podiums in 272 races. He also became the first Brazilian driver since the legendary Ayrton Senna to win a Brazilian Grand Prix. Since retiring from Formula One racing in 2017, Massa has kept himself busy by racing in the Formula E series. When Felipe retires from all forms of racing, he could write a few pages in the book, ‘Manskills: How to Avoid Embarrassing Yourself and Impress Everyone Else’ based on the incident narrated below.

Felipe Massa ‘drifts’ into the pitlane unintentionally

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The incident took place at Silverstone in the 2010 F1 season. Early in the race, both Ferrari drivers (Massa and Fernando Alonso) collided with each other, causing a puncture for Massa who headed to the pitlane. However, his first unfortunate pitstop was overshadowed by an even better one.

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Felipe Massa lost control of his car after rounding a bend near the pitlane at Silverstone. After losing control of the car, he managed to keep himself in the race by counter steering. But by that time he had already entered the pit lane. However, the Brazilian handled the situation like a boss. Cool and calm as if nothing ever happened, he made a pitstop. Unfortunately, Ferrari’s crew wasn’t ready for Massa’s extraordinary drift lesson, and the pitstop took a while.

Nevertheless, Massa came back out on the track. However, he finished in a measly 15th place. His teammate, Alonso, didn’t fare too much better either. The Spaniard ended the race in 14th place, thus ending a shambolic race for Ferrari. Massa finished the season in 6th place in the Drivers’ championship behind Alonso, who finished second. It was the second of Massa’s 5 consecutive winless seasons at Ferrari. Oddly enough, despite finishing 6th that year, Massa accumulated his highest ever points tally in Formula One. Yes, there was a revision in the points system, starting that year.

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Written by:

Ronan Carvalho

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One take at a time

Ronan Carvalho is senior F1 author for Essentiallysports. Ronan is currently pursuing his Journalism degree from St. Xavier's College.
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