Venturi’s Felipe Massa has responded to Jaguar’s Nelson Piquet Jr’s radio call during the FIA Formula E Championship’s Marrakesh ePrix’s FP1 session.
With less than five minutes remaining, the two Brazilians came together with Massa ahead of Piquet Jr. The former slowed down without any warnings which put off the latter as he called Massa as an ‘amateur’ considering his debut year in Formula E.
“You saw what Massa did in the last corner. F*****g ridiculous! Amateur!,” said Piquet Jr. When Formula E reporter asked Massa about his remarks, the ex-F1 driver played down the incident and revealed that he slowed down only because he had a technical issue.
The grand prix winner added that there was no intention to ruin Piquet Jr’s lap and so his comments seems odd. “I think it’s very sad because I had a problem with the car,” started Massa. “I lost drive in the car, so that’s why I was stopping.
“I don’t understand why…well. He’s not a great example to be honest. Things that he’s doing, things what he’s saying. So, I don’t care for what he is saying to be honest. The only thing I can say is that I didn’t do anything wrong – I just had a technical problem.”
Piquet Jr has a long history with Audi’s Lucas di Grassi in the previous seasons and it seems like we are in for another of an in-country driver fight in Formula E. Meanwhile, it wasn’t a great outing for either of the Brazilians in the race though.
Massa had energy recovery issues which meant he was only 18th while Piquet Jr’s contact with Mahindra’s Pascal Wehrlein and di Grassi earlier in the race meant he lost places to be only 14th in the end as Mahindra’s Jerome D’Ambrosio took the win.
