Tuesday, 18 August 2009

Massa targets Brazilian GP comeback


Felipe Massa is targeting
a comeback at this year's Brazilian Grand Prix as he continues to make good progress in his recovery from the head injury he sustained in Hungary three weeks ago.

The Brazilian sustained a brain concussion and damage to his skull and left eye after being struck on the helmet by a spring that had fallen out of Rubens Barrichello's car.

Massa is now recovering at home after being released from the Albert Einstein hospital in Sao Paulo two weeks ago, and is hoping to return to Formula 1 as soon as possible - targeting his home race in October.

"I cannot wait to race again, I hope I can do the Brazilian Grand Prix," Massa told Brazilian television channel Globo. "But it's not for me to say, it's for the doctors, and I have to show I can be ready for the grand prix."

He will have to pass an FIA medical test and an eye examination before he will be allowed back into a Formula 1 car.

"I think I am going to do some laps in a go-kart beforehand, then I will go to the FIA to do the examinations and get the authorisation to come back to racing."

Massa says he has no recollections of the accident itself, and just remembers waking up in the hospital in Hungary.

"I lived the accident, but I slept," he said. "I didn't see the spring. Many people ask me: 'the spring came, did you not see it?' But I didn't see it hit me, I didn't see anything. The spring just hit my head and I slept. The car crashed and I carried on accelerating but it almost wasn't me that was doing it. It looks like I move my hands, but I was sleeping.

"When I woke in hospital, I felt that everything was working. I saw that my eye was really really big, but I was breathing and thinking. I could move my arms, I could move my legs, I could move everything."

He confirmed that Barrichello feels no guilt over the incident after he was visited at home by his fellow Brazilian last week.

"Not at all," Massa added. "He didn't even know that I was behind him. It's not a problem at all. We are really good friends and what happened was going to happen, it could have been the spring from anyone."

Massa also said he had been touched by the response from his fans in his native Brazil.

"I had an idea, but the moment I got back to Brazil after the accident everyone was clapping me and shouting and hoping for me to get better and come back and race," he said. "It's a unique feeling and I keep saying 'thank you' all the time."

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