Massa could have won title despite ‘Crashgate’

In brief

Massa could have won title despite ‘Crashgate’ – Piquet Jnr

Nelson Piquet Jnr says the crash he caused during the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix needn’t have cost Felipe Massa the world championship that year.

Massa is seeking legal action over the race, which Fernando Alonso won after Piquet, his Renault team mate, deliberately crashed in order to cause a Safety Car period. During that period Massa pitted but suffered a botched pit stop which ended his chances of scoring any points.

Lewis Hamilton, who ran second behind his championship rival Massa in the opening stages of the race, finished third. He out-scored Massa by six points and went on to deny him the title by a single point.

Piquet insisted his crash wasn’t done “to affect a person directly – it was a team order to help someone within our team.”

“It wasn’t to disturb Felipe,” he told the Pelas Pistas podcast. “It was nothing like that. We don’t know what happened, you know? Felipe could very well have won that race if that hadn’t happened at the pit stop.”

Kobayashi puts #7 Toyota quickest in WEC practice

Kamui Kobayashi set the quickest time in the second practice session ahead of this weekend’s Six Hours of Algarve at Autodromo do Algarve in Portugal, putting the number seven Toyota of Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Jose Maria Lopez quickest, almost a full second faster than Toyota number eight team mates Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa, who had been quickest in the opening session.

The two Ferrari 499Ps were third and fourth, with number 50, driven by Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Niklas Nielsen ahead of the number 51 of Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado and Antonio Giovinazzi. The two Peugeots were split by the number five Penske Porsche, with Cadillac, Glickenhaus and the number six Porsche completing the top ten. The Vanwall hypercar was 13th, behind the two fastest LMP2 cars of Vector Sport and Inter Europol.

Mini fastest as F3 test ends

Gabriele Mini set the fastest overall time in the two day FIA Formula 3 test at the Circuit de Barcelona as the running came to an end.

The Hitech driver’s best time in the morning session of a 1’26.319 was half a tenth quicker than Taylor Barnard, while championship leader Gabriel Bortoleto was quickest in the final session in the evening, also ahead of Barnard.

F3 will test again next…