Williams driver Felipe Massa says that he was delighted to take seventh in his final home Grand Prix in Brazil. He compared it to “many victories that I have taken”. Massa made a rapid getaway to jump from ninth to sixth at the start. He passed McLaren-Honda’s Fernando Alonso into the Senna ‘S’ following an early Safety Car period.

He held fifth position for the majority of the race, only losing out to Lewis Hamilton and Daniel Ricciardo. The latter 2 had started from the back of the grid. during their recoveries from the back of the grid. Massa came under pressure from Alonso and Force India’s Sergio Pérez in the closing stages. But the veteran held on to claim seventh, and lap up the applause from the home crowd.

Massa Says

Massa will make his final Formula 1 appearance at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in a fortnight. He said, “It’s so difficult to explain my feelings today, I had an amazing start. Then I managed to overtake a few cars after the Safety Car. I managed to overtake Alonso, which was very important, and I knew he would have better pace. So I managed to keep him behind.”

“It was like many victories that I have taken, so I drove a perfect race from the beginning to the end, managed the tyres, managed everything on the car, the pace I had. It was like a victory… it’s so amazing to finish the race and to feel the emotion of the people. I knew that maybe last year, I had so much emotion and love from the people, but I didn’t finish the race like I wanted, so today I finished the race like I wanted…”

After the chequered flag, Massa’s son, Filipinho, spoke over the radio, shouting: “Daddy, I’m so proud of you… by the way, I loved your start!” Asked about the message, Massa said: “It was very special to have my son on the radio, but also my family here, all the fans, everybody supporting me. It was a race that I will never forget, it will be inside my heart. For sure I will miss all of you guys, for everything that we’ve passed together, so thank you very much to all of you, we’ve been together for 16 years, thank yo