![\"Felipe-Massa-car-2\"](\"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/gallery\/f1-2013-rif-images\/f1-2013-drivers\/Felipe-Massa-car-2.jpg\")
While running ahead of teammate Fernando Alonso at Suzuka, Brazilian Massa – who is leaving Ferrari at the end of the season – was told by his engineer Rob Smedley to let the Spaniard past.<\/p>\nFerrari has played down Felipe Massa’s refusal to obey a direct team order in Sunday’s Japanese grand prix.<\/p>\n
While running ahead of teammate Fernando Alonso at Suzuka, Brazilian Massa – who is leaving Ferrari at the end of the season – was told by his engineer Rob Smedley to let the Spaniard past.<\/p>\n
“Multi-function strategy A.\u00a0 Now, please,” Smedley was heard to say on the radio.<\/p>\n
Massa refused to either respond or obey, forcing Alonso to pass him in a wheel-to-wheel battle many laps later.<\/p>\n
“We cannot make a big thing about it,” Alonso said afterwards, hinting he understands Massa’s frustration.<\/p>\n
“Sometimes it’s difficult, especially when you are fighting for seventh, eighth place.<\/p>\n
“It would be nice to go back to the old days in Ferrari, fighting for first and second and deciding who wins the races, like Red Bull does,” he added.<\/p>\n
When quizzed about the ‘Multi-function strategy A’ command, which is eerily similar to Red Bull’s infamous ‘Multi-21’, Massa readily admitted it was a team order that he refused to obey.<\/p>\n
“It was an instruction,” the Brazilian confirmed.<\/p>\n
“We’re never happy with instructions,” added Massa.\u00a0 “Whatever happened in the race was not over any instruction; he overtook me on the track.<\/p>\n
“We fought on the track,” added reiterated.<\/p>\n
He is quoted by Speed Week: “I have said several times now that I do not make presents.\u00a0 And I’ve said that I am racing for me — I am doing my races.”<\/p>\n
Team boss Stefano Domenicali played down Massa’s defiance.<\/p>\n
“I can understand his feeling,” he said.\u00a0 “The team will totally support him until the end of the season, no problem.”<\/p>\n
A controversy was also brewing within the dominant Red Bull team on Sunday, amid suspicions pole sitter Mark Webber’s race was deliberately compromised when he was switched from a two to a three-stop strategy.<\/p>\n
“All of a sudden we decided to do a three,” the Australian, whose teammate Sebastian Vettel extended his winning streak, revealed.<\/p>\n
“I was a little bit surprised.\u00a0 I asked was it the right thing to do.”<\/p>\n
Boss Dr Helmut Marko insisted, however, that the retiring Webber was not ‘sacrificed’ to help Vettel.<\/p>\n
“No!” he told Germany’s Bild am Sonntag.<\/p>\n
“We chose during the race to change our strategy because we could not assess whether Grosjean is doing two or three stops.<\/p>\n
“If we had done nothing, we would have been second and third,” Marko added.<\/p>\n
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