» Massa ‘fine’ after colossal Monaco crashes

Felipe Massa was discharged from hospital after suffering two near-identical accidents during the Monaco Grand Prix weekend. His Ferrari team have insisted that the diminutive Brazilian will be fit to race at the next Grand Prix in Canada in less than a fortnight’s time.

Massa suffered a high-speed brake lock-up on the approach to Sainte Devote during Saturday practice, badly damaging his F138 to the point that he was unable to participate in qualifying that afternoon, which consigned him to a long slog from the back of the grid.

Take 1: The Saturday practice crash

Still suffering a sore neck as one of the aftereffects of his Saturday crash, Massa incredibly had an almost identical accident in Sunday’s race, wiping his Ferrari against the outside barriers before skidding into the Armco at Saine Devote.

Take 2: The Sunday race crash

After clambering out of his car, Massa was kept in a neck brace and transferred to the Princess Grace Hospital for checks, later Tweeting a thumbs up photo from his Monaco apartment after he was sent home.

The Ferrari team remains confident that Massa won’t suffer any ill-effects from the smash when the field regroups at the Circuit de Gilles Villeneuve in less than a fortnight’s time.

“He is fine,” Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali said.

“In the space of a few days he will back in perfect shape and ready to race in Montreal.”

Ferrari also confirmed that it had analysed the causes of the two accidents, with the Saturday crash caused by the car’s poor reaction to catching a bump on the track surface.

“It seems that [Sunday’s] incident can be attributed to a problem on the left front corner of the car,” Ferrari technical director Pat Fry added.