Massa crashes in British GP practice, but posts best time

ROBERT MILLWARD

The Associated Press

Friday, Jul. 04, 2008

SILVERSTONE, England - World championship leader Felipe Massa spun off the track and hit a wall during Friday's practice for the British Grand Prix and still set the fastest time in his Ferrari.

The Brazilian driver, who leads by two points in the hotly contested Formula One championship, was already the fastest in the first practice with a time of 1 minute, 19.575 seconds when he spun on some oil left behind by Fernando Alonso's Renault at the end of the fastest straight of the Silverstone circuit. Massa's car spun around 180 degrees and he went into the safety wall backward, damaging the rear of his car.

"It was a big crash," Massa said. "But that's part of the game and I have had much worse accidents in my career. I didn't see any flags and I had approached the corner in the usual way and then I totally lost control of the car under braking. I tried to slow down, but the impact was still pretty violent."

Massa climbed out after a few minutes and did not appear hurt. Race officials halted the session which had been going for just under an hour and it resumed 18 minutes later after the track had been cleared of oil and debris.

With Massa unable to continue the first session, his rivals resumed chased his time. McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen was closest in his final lap just before the session ended, leading Massa's time at the first two intermediate timings but crossed the finish line 0.012 slower.

McLaren teammate Lewis Hamilton was third, 0.048 behind.

Ferrari mechanics managed to fix the car and Massa returned for 17 laps in the second practice session and placed eighth, 0.954 slower than Kovalainen. But the Finn still failed to beat Massa's time for the early session, clocking 1:19.989. That was more than half a second faster than Red Bull's Mark Webber, who timed 1:20.520 in the second session.

Another round of practice will be staged Saturday followed by qualifying for Sunday's race.

Massa is two points ahead of BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica in the championship race, five ahead of Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen and 10 in front of Hamilton.

Meanwhile, FIA president Max Mosley and Formula One Manufacturers boss Bernie Ecclestone announced on Friday that the British GP was moving from Silverstone to Donington Park in 2010.

"After many years of patient but fruitless negotiation with the British Racing Drivers Club we are delighted that Bernie had nevertheless been able to ensure that the British Grand Prix will keep its place on the Formula One World Championship calendar," Mosley said in a statement. "We understand that the development program planned for Donington will achieve the very high standards we and Formula One expect from a modern F1 circuit. Finally, British Formula One fans will get the Grand Prix venue they deserve."

Ecclestone, who has warned Silverstone several times it might lose the race, blamed the British government for not giving financial backing to the former World War II airfield.

"I am sorry that we could not have helped Silverstone to raise the money to carry out the circuit improvements and run Formula One," he said. "I believe that the government should have supported them which would have cost probably less that 0.002 percent of the government's commitment for the Olympic Games."

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