5 talking points of the Japanese GP

Massa finally defies Ferrari

Felipe Massa defied team orders for letting teammate Fernando Alonso to pass through at the Japanese GP

Felipe Massa finally did what he intended to – stand up for himself, after he was handed the pink slip by Ferrari. The Brazilian veteran unable to find a seat for 2014, defied team orders of ‘ Multifunction Strategy A’ a coded message asking him to let teammate Fernando Alonso pass through on lap 8.

After having followed that instruction on numerous occasions in his stint with Ferrari, Massa stayed put before Alonso eventually overtook him on lap 20. Despite his ‘I will run my own race’ effort, he was unfortunate tenth place finish after getting a drive through penalty for over speeding in the pit lane.

While Alonso shrugged the incident with everyone trying to go for ‘maximum’ remark, Ferrari too played down the incident as Team Prinicipal Domicalli said that they had to focus on bigger things (maintaining the second place in the Constructor’s) and would be support Massa till the end of the season. The fact remains that had Alonso been in the running for the Driver’s Championship, the incident could have definitely gone a different way.