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Massa to fly to Miami for further checks
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Felipe Massa will fly to Miami on Friday to see one of America’s top neurosurgeons as he continues his recovery from the head injuries he suffered in his Hungarian Grand Prix accident on July 25.
The 28-year-old Ferrari driver, who was discharged from hospital three weeks ago and has since been recuperating at home in Brazil, will travel to Miami to see motor racing trauma specialist Dr Steve Olvey.
As the highly respected medical director of the CART/Champ Car series from 1979 to 2003, Olvey was instrumental in saving many drivers’ lives including that of former F1 driver Alex Zanardi, who lost both legs in a horrific crash in Germany in 2001.
“I will take my CTs [brain scans] with me and probably undergo further exams at the hospital in Miami,” Massa told Ferrari’s website.
Massa also took the opportunity to thank his countryman Rubens Barrichello for his support over the past few weeks.
Barrichello visited Massa in hospital and has been in touch with him regularly to find out how his recovery has been going.
He also carried a message of support on his helmet at last weekend’s race – ‘Felipe – see you on track soon’ – and dedicated his first F1 win in nearly five years to his friend.
Massa revealed that he had phoned Barrichello on Sunday afternoon to congratulate and thank him.
“My first attempt failed because he was debriefing with his Brawn GP people,” he said.
“But later I could manage to talk to him and congratulated him for his fantastic victory.
“Of course, I also thanked him for everything he’s done and said about me during the whole weekend.
“In fact, I felt very emotional when I saw his helmet with a design intended to honour me.”
Massa watched the European Grand Prix with interest from his home in Sao Paulo and contributed to Brazilian channel TV Globo’s coverage via text messages.
“I followed the race also by my notebook, taking a close look at the live timing,” he said.
“The last time a saw a Formula 1 race on TV was the Japanese GP back in 2003.
“It was the race that closed the calendar and I did not travel do Japan because I was Ferrari test driver at that time.”
Having won last year’s inaugural Valencia race, Massa expressed a patriotic pride in Barrichello’s victory, which was the 100th by a Brazilian driver in F1 history.
“I had my fingers crossed all the time, expecting a victory that could keep the Brazilian domination in Valencia,” he said.
“Rubens did a fantastic job today. I was checking his lap times and I’m sure he could win even without [Lewis] Hamilton’s [pit stop] problem.
“He was amazingly quick in his second stint and did not make any mistakes.”
