 Massa Unhappy with Sauber's Team Orders Monday July 29th, 2002 Brazilian Felipe Massa was unhappy about his Sauber team's decision to impose team orders, and claimed Nick Heidfeld's sixth-place finish at the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim should have been his. Massa was ordered to allow Heidfeld to pass him early in the race in order to catch the British American Racing car of Olivier Panis before the two Saubers came home sixth and seventh respectively. But 21-year-old Massa claimed that once the pair's positions were settled towards the end of the race, German Heidfeld should have returned the favour and allowed him to come home in the final points-scoring position. "I understood that I had to let Nick by, but I do not know why he did not return the place to me again later," Massa told Switzerland's Blick newspaper. "That would have been fair because this point belonged to me." Massa's race engineer Jacky Eeckelaert admitted that the outcome had been a major disappointment for the young Brazilian following another impressive performance in his debut season. "We must accept the decision," Eeckelaert said. "But it is hard for Felipe because he drove another sensational race." Team boss Sauber claimed his decision to force Massa to allow Heidfeld by was justified in the outcome of the race, and said: "Nick had shown that he could drive faster and his lap times were also clearly faster. "The only chance we had of catching Panis was by Nick moving ahead. The decision was not a nice one to make but the team comes first. It was a rather unpleasant thing for me to do but I can at least say it was justified."
Published at 14:38:13 GMT
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