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Massa baffled by stewards' leniency with Rosberg
Felipe Massa is baffled at why Nico Rosberg was not punished by the stewards at the Belgian Grand Prix for his contact with Lewis Hamilton.
In the week after the race, Rosberg apologised for the collision which ruined Hamilton's race and cost Mercedes victory. The stewards viewed it as a racing incident and the FIA has since said it has no plans to review the collision, but Massa believes it should have been punished.
"What I saw in the last race, maybe it was not so correct from Nico, to be honest," he said. "I don't understand why they didn't give a penalty to him. It was impossible to pass Lewis at that place. At the first point of the corner he tried to be on the outside, which is okay, but then Lewis was in front and it was impossible to pass and he needed to brake. He didn't brake and they touched wheels when Nico was behind. Nico destroyed Lewis race, so I don't understand why they didn't give a penalty to him.
"I think they are both great drivers and know how to be fair, but they are fighting each other [for the title] and one point can be enough. It's nice to allow them to have a normal fight, but at the last race I don't think it was so normal."
However, Sebastian Vettel believes the stewards got the decision just right and was surprised that Mercedes publicly announced it would discipline Rosberg.
"I'm very happy that there wasn't any action and it was considered a racing incident," Vettel said. "From my point of view … maybe I'm not talented enough to time it perfectly right to puncture somebody, but you'd get it wrong more often than you get it right. I'm not interested too much in expanding my talent in that direction!
"I think it's good that they didn't take any decision, but it was then funny to see the team decide to take some decisions in terms of penalties. It's good to let us race. If we get it completely wrong then we need to be penalised, because it needs to be a clear line that you draw. But in that case shit happens - especially from Lewis' point of view because he didn't finish."
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