Massa retirement in Singapore not down to accident

Felipe Massa has confirmed that the premature end to his Singapore Grand Prix was not related to his clash with Nico Hulkenberg.

Massa said that problems with the gearbox in his Williams-Mercedes were to blame, and that he would likely have retired even if there hadn't been contact with the Force India a few laps earlier.

"It was a little bit strange why we had this problem," said Massa. "We've never had this problem before. It was nothing to do with the accident, so maybe my race would have finished [early] anyway.

"You couldn't go back to the gears, so I almost had to stop the car going back to first gear. Then it was coming through and then jumping again, so it was a very strange problem to be honest.

"We have a new gearbox [for Japan]," Massa added. "We didn't finish the race so we can change without losing any positions."

Massa said that there were no hard feelings with Hulkenberg over the collision between the pair early in the Singapore Grand Prix as Massa was leaving pit lane which left the Williams with a punctured right-front tyre.

"He wrote me an SMS to apologise, which was nice," said Massa. "For sure we were fighting, and maybe he was too optimistic to close the door like that, but it's okay - it's nice to have the message.

"I think he had a big chance to stay in front. He could brake much later because his tyres were in better shape. He could have stayed on the right and the next turn was in his favour - maybe I would have had the DRS but it was very difficult to predict.

"He just closed the door too early. He didn't leave any space for me.

"The problem is that I was leaving the pit lane and I was doing the corner and I was in front - on that angle for me it was impossible to see him. I just saw him when I was already starting braking: then I saw him so for me I couldn't do anything.

"It was much easier for him to see me than for me to see him," Massa added.

"I don't think I would have finished the race anyway. It's better, when you have so many problems, that you have them all in the same race which is maybe a race that you cannot finish because of all the issues.

"The only positive thing is that maybe everything happens in the race - with Hulkenberg - when we couldn't score anyway.

"We were not very competitive anyway in Singapore. Other teams were much better than us," he pointed out. "Now I hope everything will be okay for most of the [remaining] races."

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