Felipe Massa crashed out after a 1kg spring from Rubens Barrichello’s Brawn GP car hit one inch above his left eye.
Felipe Massa had a near-death experience at the Hungarian Grand Prix in 2009. He was rushed to the Budapest hospital after a strange incident with Brawn GP driver Rubens Barrichello.
Going into the qualifying, Red bull and Renault had the higher ground with Fernando Alonso taking the pole ahead of Sebastian Vettel.
However, at the ending laps of the qualifying, Massa met with a serious incident. A spring from Barrichello’s BGO001 detached and hit Massa just one inch above his left eye.
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Rubens Barrichello’s Brawn GP spring hits Felipe Massa
This was a horrific incident as Massa was already driving at a speed of well over 250km/hr. The black spring bounced on the track surface and hit Massa knocking him unconscious.
The Ferrari driver had his feet on the accelerator and on the accelerator pedal as well. Thus, he ran straight to the tire barrier at 0.6 and 1.4g force.
The car hit the tire barrier and the engine was still revving while the Brazilian was in the car. He was airlifted out of the circuit straight to the hospital and was out of the remaining races of the 2009 season.
The Former Ferrari driver talks about this horrific incident
Speaking about the incident, Massa explained that the spring weigh between 900grams-1kg and hit him at a speed of 250km/hr. He lost his bone area above the left eye.
The Brazilian explained: “I went to the hospital. They made quite an intense operation. I flew back to Brazil, and they did another big operation a month after [the crash]. They put like a plate, here [Massa points to above his left eye], because I lost all the bone on this area.”
Massa described his return, stating: “It took really a long time to get back to the car. You always know you want to go back to racing, but you never believe something will happen to you. When it happens to you, you just respect the life of yourself and also everybody in a big way.”
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