During his in-lap at the end of Q2 on Saturday, Massa's helmet was struck by a spring coming from Rubens Barrichello's suspension and drove unconsciously into the tire barrier at the exit of Turn 4. He was immediately helicoptered to the hospital during the course of the afternoon and underwent an emergency surgery on Saturday evening. His condition is now stable.
As argued by Raikkonen, no matter the safety standards imposed by the FIA for Formula One racing, open-cockpit racing will always be prone to these kind of accidents. It was the same with F2 racer Henry Surtees two weekends ago, as a wheel coming from Jack Clarke's car hit him in the head while in the race and eventually led to his death.
“It's a sad thing that's happened from a very unlucky situation. But as long as we race with open cockpits our heads are always the first place that's going to be hit if something is flying around. It is part of racing and we all know that,” said Raikkonen, who dedicated his runner-up spot in the Hungarian Grand Prix to Massa.
“What happened was really unfortunate, but luckily enough he's more or less okay. He's probably going to be a hundred percent fine in a little time. We in the team all hope he's going to be fine and come back soon,” added the Finnish driver.
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