• Italian Grand Prix - FP2

Massa lucky to avoid big accident at the Parabolica

Felipe Massa narrowly avoided a big shunt in second practice © Sutton Images

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• Race:
• Italian Grand Prix

• Championship:
• FIA Formula One World Championship

• Drivers:
• Felipe Massa

• Teams:
• Ferrari

Felipe Massa admitted he was "really lucky" to come away from his trip into the gravel trap unscathed during the second free practice session for the Italian Grand Prix.

Massa had lit up the timing screens and looked set to post the fastest time when he came up behind Michael Schumacher in the Parabolica and lost downforce. He understeered off the track and then held a huge slide on the gravel, narrowly avoiding the tyre wall at over 100mph before making a lunge for the pits.

"At the end of the second session, I tried to copy Kimi [Raikkonen, ex-Ferrari driver] and do a bit of rallying," Massa said. "Joking apart, I was really lucky when I went off the track. I was heading for my best time, when I found myself in Michael's wake at the Parabolica and went off: I kept the accelerator pressed down in the hope I would manage to avoid hitting the barrier and I managed it, so I came straight back to the pits. Unfortunately, the car was slightly damaged, so I had to miss out on the final part of our programme."

Despite the mistake, Massa still held the third fastest time at the end of the session and is confident ahead of Saturday's qualifying session.

"Overall, it has been a good day in which we constantly improved," he added. "We had a lot of work to get through and at the start we struggled a bit, but then we found a good set-up and in the end I was reasonably happy with my car. We learned a lot about the handling of the F10 and now we have plenty of data to analyse to prepare as well as possible for what is such an important event, this being the Scuderia's home race."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.