Massa says he had the pace to win

Massa was running comfortably in first position when he made his first pitstop during the safety car period.

The Brazilian was given the green light to go but the fuel hose was still attached to the car and he dragged the hose down the pitlane, knocking over his mechanics in the process.

He had to wait several seconds before the mechanics run to the end of the pitlane to assist him.

Massa, who was hit by a penalty for unsafe release, went on to finish in 13th place, dropping seven points behind Lewis Hamilton in the championship.

"We lost six points today so we are seven behind," said Massa. "We could have been first in the championship now because we had fantastic pace and could have finished first and second and things could have been different now.

"Racing's racing and these things can happen. We are all human beings and everybody can make mistakes.

"I'm not the kind of guy who goes to the guy and fights with him, so I go to the guy and give him even more motivation because we need him and we need everybody together for the last three races of the season.

"Seven points is seven points but we have 30 in front of us and we have a quick car."

Massa, whose team use a light system instead of the traditional lollipop, said the problem had been caused by a human error.

"Well, the problems we had today was not because of the signals," he said. "The problem we had was a human being. It can happen with the signaling and it can happen with the lollipop. We can maybe go back to the lollipop, but that's not really the problem we had today.

"The green light went on and I drove forward. The only problem is that we had a human problem and the green light came in the wrong moment. Then everything happened with the fuel tank and everything. So that was the biggest problem."

Team boss Stefano Domenicali said after the race that Massa had met with the mechanic who had made the mistake to console him.