Sigh of relief

After his horrific accident earlier in the season at the Hungarian Grand Prix, Felipe Massa returned to the Formula One paddock at the 2009 Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos. To the delight and relief of the Brazilian fans, he was the one who waved the checkered flag to winner Mark Webber (Red Bull) and to Jenson Button (Brawn GP), who had enough with fifth place to secure his first and only Drivers’ Championship.

Indeed, at the 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix, Massa was injured by a suspension spring that had fallen off the Brawn GP car of Rubens Barrichello during qualifying. Such was the impact on his helmet, doctors first feared for his eye, but luckily it was saved.

Massa was forced to miss the rest of the season, but returned in 2010 during which he proved to have recovered all (?) his race craft. When you see how close to Felipe’s eye the impact was (picture-below), you can only measure how lucky he was to be able to continue his racing career.