WELCOME TO MONACO
Felipe Massa has defended his underfire Williams teenage teammate Lance Stroll amid suggestions , by his own admission , that the Canadian rookie treats his career like a computer game .
The back-from-retirement Brazilian reacted after eighteen year old Stroll crashed on the entry to Casino Square during Thursday ’ s second practice session .
Massa was sympathetic to his teammate ’ s difficulties on his first acquaintance with arguably the most demanding , technical and unforgiving circuit on the calendar .
“ It ’ s his first weekend in Monaco and many drivers have accidents ,” said Massa . “ Perhaps we should just say ‘ Welcome to Monaco !’
“ I think Lance did a good lap , he was more competitive than in Barcelona , so that ’ s a positive , but of course Monaco is Monaco and he must understand that a mistake here can cost him his session .”
Stroll said afterwards that he had attacked the corners at the top of the hill and made his mark , but added a comparison to PlayStation that drew widespread criticism .
“ It really pissed me off , because every time I play the PlayStation game , it ’ s always those corners that I can ’ t get right and in reality it ’ s still those two corners ,” he said . “ I just sent it in , kind of looking for the limit . I lost the rear and got into the dirt a little bit – a typical street circuit mistake . If you don ’ t touch the wall in Monaco , you ’ re not on the limit .”