Formula 1

FIA investigating Massa's unpunished head-start

F1's governing body is investigating how Felipe Massa escaped penalty despite getting a head-start in last Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix. As the cars lined up on the Spa-Francorchamps grid, BBC commentator Martin Brundle noticed that the Brazilian's ...

GMM

Edited: Sep 4, 2010, 2:49 AM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

F1's governing body is investigating how Felipe Massa escaped penalty despite getting a head-start in last Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix.

As the cars lined up on the Spa-Francorchamps grid, BBC commentator Martin Brundle noticed that the Brazilian's Ferrari was about "two metres" ahead of its starting box.

And a spectator's amateur footage, posted on video sharing website Youtube, backs Brundle's observation, even though the race director, stewards and rival teams and drivers apparently did not notice or report Massa's head-start.

The Telegraph said the FIA has launched an investigation into how Massa escaped without a drive-through penalty.

The report said the transponder on the floor of Massa's F10 did not send a signal to the tarmac sensor because he was too far out of position, while the marshals did not alert the race director manually.

"As no further information or complaints were received before the publication of the official result on Sunday night, the classification of the Belgian Grand Prix will now remain unchanged," said an FIA spokeswoman.

"The FIA are investigating the causes of the apparent failures in communication with race control in order to ensure a repetition is not possible," she added.

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article F1's new sponsor is good 'signal' for Williams

Next article Sauber not dismissing Mexican rumours

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Mercedes explains why its upgrade made its F1 car harder to drive

Formula 1

Singapore GP

Mercedes explains why its upgrade made its F1 car harder to drive

How Geri Halliwell helped Christian Horner deal with fan hate

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1 1 h

How Geri Halliwell helped Christian Horner deal with fan hate

Max Verstappen stars with 15-place charge in 45 minutes: 'I learned a lot and had fun'

GT World Challenge Europe Endurance

WCEE GT World Challenge Europe Endurance

Portimão

1 h

Max Verstappen stars with 15-place charge in 45 minutes: 'I learned a lot and had fun'

How levelling the playing field isn’t antithetical to the principles of F1

Formula 1

How levelling the playing field isn’t antithetical to the principles of F1

Feature

Discover prime content

How levelling the playing field isn’t antithetical to the principles of F1

Formula 1

By Pat Symonds

How levelling the playing field isn’t antithetical to the principles of F1

Lights, Camara, action: How Haas picked F1's latest rookie for 2027

Formula 1

Singapore GP

By Jake Boxall-Legge

Lights, Camara, action: How Haas picked F1's latest rookie for 2027

Employing team orders can simply be a matter of common sense

Formula 1

By Kevin Turner

Employing team orders can simply be a matter of common sense

Why Christian Horner sees history repeating itself for Adrian Newey at Aston Martin

Formula 1

Singapore GP

By Ronald Vording

Why Christian Horner sees history repeating itself for Adrian Newey at Aston Martin

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts