SINGAPORE (— Ferrari’s Felipe Massa, who started on the pole position, received a setback at the Singapore Grand Prix on Sunday after driving off from a pit stop with a fuel rig still attached to his car.
The hose tore off its mooring, spewing gasoline in the air and lashing a crew member who fell to the ground as the Ferrari drove away, less than 50 minutes into the race.
After realizing the error, Massa stopped further down in the pit with the hose trailing behind him, as stunned crew members rushed to help.
Having lost precious time, Massa rejoined the race in 18th position, wrecking what until then had been a perfect race from the pole. He had been well in front of championship leader Lewis Hamilton, who started second.
The Brazilian was given a drive-through penalty for unsafe release because he almost collided with another car while leaving the pit with the hose.
The mechanic who was brought down by the snaking hose was carried away on a stretcher for a checkup at the on-track medical center.
In other incidents, Renault’s Nelson Piquet Jr. crashed against a side protective barrier, while Ruben Barrichello found his Honda stopping suddenly.
Piquet was apparently unhurt, climbing out of his wrecked car before dashing across the track to get out through an opening. Barrichello also found his way out of the track to mingle with spectators and shake their hands.
Heidfeld dropped down grid: BMW’s Nick Heidfeld was relegated three positions on the grid for Sunday’s Singapore Formula One Grand Prix for causing interference in qualifying.
Stewards determined that Heidfeld impeded Honda’s Rubens Barrichello during Saturday night’s qualifying session.
Heidfeld started from ninth on the grid, while Toro Rosso’s Sebastian Vettel, Toyota’s Timo Glock and Williams’ Nico Rosberg each move up one spot to six, seventh and eighth respectively.
The interference caused Barrichello to make a sudden decision to pit despite not passing inside the guideline ahead of the final corner as required. He incurred a €10,000 (US$14,600) penalty as a result.
Heidfeld defended his conduct in the incident, while criticizing the pitlane entry at Singapore, which was changed ahead of Saturday’s sessions, but not enough to the German’s satisfaction.
“When I saw him, I tried to do the best I could to get out of the way,” Heidfeld was quoted to say on the autosport.com Web site.
“After the white line I tried to be as quick into the pitlane without moving completely right and going into his way. It was the best I could do. But apparently not enough” he said. “Even before the race weekend started it was obvious that there would be issues with the pitlane entry and pitlane exit, so I don’t know why it wasn’t thought through properly.”
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