Brazilian Media Hits Out at Incompetent Massa

Felipe Massa finished the Singapore Grand Prix in 8th place, after starting the race from the last place on the grid. Nevertheless, the immense gain in positions he made throughout the race at Marina Bay Circuit was not the result of great overtaking, but of several cars crashing out of the race and a couple of well-placed safety cars that benefited his early pit stop strategy.

Following the second safety car of the race, Massa was stuck behind Williams' rookie Nico Hulkenberg and failed to pressure the German for the entire second half of the race. Not only that, but he also got caught by Renault's Robert Kubica with less than 10 laps remaining and was overtaken by the Pole very easily, attracting some intense criticism from the Brazilian media.

Brazilian journalist Livio Oricchio wrote in his column for Jornal da Tarde that there is a clear difference between Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa within the Ferrari garage, and hinted that Ferrari are right to support the Spaniard for the title.

“He stayed behind Nico Hulkenberg's Williams most of the time. But Massa has the same car as (race winner) Alonso. Ferrari can be accused of having team orders, but not of giving its two drivers different cars,” wrote Oricchio.

“Alonso proved that the car is very fast. But we didn't see a single attempt from Massa to overtake his opponent, even when his tires were new. What we're seeing is a disproportionate difference in competence between the two Ferrari drivers,” added the aforementioned journalist.

After the race, Massa benefited from two 20-second penalties handed by the FIA stewards to Force India's Adrian Sutil and Hulkenberg, which promoted him to 8th overall. Nevertheless, the Brazilian angrily admitted, when asked about his title chances, that the 2010 campaign is a done affair for him.

“On some questions, you could probably think of the answer. But I will say it again. The world championship for me is over,” said Massa.