Johnny Herbert has enlightened fans over Felipe Massa’s penalty in the Indian Grand Prix. The Brazilian was left furious after another collision with Lewis Hamilton, which came at Turn 5 as the duo battled for fifth position.
Herbert was playing the role of driver representative steward for the first time since the season-opening Australian Grand Prix and has now explained the logic behind the decision in a column for Abu Dhabi’s The National newspaper.
“The decision to penalise Felipe Massa for his contact with Lewis Hamilton came down to one simple fact - it could have been avoided,” says the three-time Grand Prix winner. “I know Massa was upset by our decision, but I believe we made the right call. Here's how the process worked:
“When Massa's Ferrari came together with Hamilton's McLaren on Lap 24 of the race, we looked at replays to see if a punishment should be given for the incident. After looking at it from different camera angles and studying all the data available to us, it was clear that Massa knew where Hamilton was before he chose to turn across him.
“You could see that Massa looked in his side mirror, so he knew Hamilton was on his left as they approached the left-hand turn. It appeared he was giving up the corner as he moved wide to the right, effectively opening the door for Hamilton to go down the inside on the left. Only, Massa swept across in front of him, leading to contact.”
Herbert is sure that, once Massa began to move over, Hamilton was unable to prevent a collision with his 2008 championship rival.
“There was nothing Hamilton could have done to avoid it,” Herbert continues. “He did try to get out of the move, but it was too late and the contact was made. If Massa had not gone wide that would have been a different scenario altogether; if there had been contact then, the blame would have been Hamilton's, but as it happened the incident could have been avoided.”
The Hamilton-Massa collision can be viewed at GPUpdate TV
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| Pos. | Driver | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. |  S. Vettel | Red Bull | 30:35.002 |
| 2. | J. Button | McLaren | +8.433 |
| 3. | F. Alonso | Ferrari | +24.301 |
| 4. | M. Webber | Red Bull | +25.529 |
| 5. | M. Schumacher | Mercedes | +1:05.421 |
| 6. | N. Rosberg | Mercedes | +1:06.851 |
| 7. | L. Hamilton | McLaren | +1:24.183 |
| 8. | J. Alguersuari | Toro Rosso | +1 Lap |
| 9. | A. Sutil | Force India | +1 Lap |
| 10. | S. Perez | Sauber | +1 Lap |
| Full results | |||
| Felipe Massa | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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| More Felipe Massa photos | |||
| Johnny Herbert | |||
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| More Johnny Herbert photos | |||
| Lewis Hamilton | |||
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| More Lewis Hamilton photos | |||
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