Felipe Massa claimed finishing best of the midfield cars “felt like a victory” in his final Brazilian Grand Prix, as he held off former teammate Fernando Alonso to cross the line seventh at Interlagos.
The Williams driver made an excellent start to sweep around the outside of Sergio Perez’s Force India at the Curva do Sol before pouncing on the McLaren driver at the restart, following an early Safety Car to claim what at the time was fifth place.
The recoveries of Lewis Hamilton and Daniel Ricciardo may have dropped the 37-year-old down two places, but achieving the best possible result on the day was exactly how Massa wanted to end his F1 career in his hometown.
“It’s so difficult to explain my feelings today,” he said. “Amazing start, then managed to overtake a few cars after the Safety Car, managed to overtake Alonso. That was very important for me because I knew he would have a better pace than me. So I managed to keep him behind.
“I was so emotional when I finished the race. It was a very difficult race for me. For me, the race was like many victories that I took. I drove a perfect race from the beginning to the end, I managed the tyres, managed everything around the car with the pace I had. Today it was definitely like a victory.”
To commemorate his final appearance at Interlagos, Massa, a two-time winner of his home race, was allowed onto the podium to address his fans after the race. For him, the chance to put right the disappointment of crashing out in 2016 made staying in F1 an extra year totally worthwhile.
“It’s so amazing to finish the race and feel the emotions of the people after such an amazing race,” he claimed. “I knew that maybe last year, I had so much love and emotion from the people but I didn’t finish the race like I wanted.
“Today I finished the race like I wanted. That’s why I did another year!” Felipe ended.
