Disappointed Massa Rues Crash with de la Rosa

Brazilian Felipe Massa completed a disappointing weekend for the Sauber team after suffering an accident with Jaguar's Pedro de la Rosa that put both out of the race.

The rookie driver was fighting with the Jaguar driver when they made contact on lap 15. De la Rosa retired immediately with a broken suspension while Massa was able to continue for another lap before going off the track with damage on the rear end of his Petronas-powered car.

"On lap 15 de la Rosa cut the first chicane, but instead of moving over to let me by he stayed ahead for a lap," explained Massa. "He was so slow going down to Ascari that I put my car in the middle of the track and, as far as I was concerned, I was past him.

"Maybe he hit the throttle again. Whatever, we touched, and that damaged either my right rear suspension or the tyre, so a lap later I was out."

Massa and teammate Nick Heidfeld were the first drivers to use the HANS safety device this weekend, and after today's race, the Brazilian gave his approval to the collar, which will be compulsory starting in 2003.

"The only good thing is that I became the first driver to race in F1 with the HANS safety collar today, and it gave me no problems all weekend," he said.

German Heidfeld finished in tenth place more than a minute behind race winner Rubens Barrichello.