Three cheers for Massa, no love for the Brazilian fans

Felipe Massa showed himself to be a class act at Interlagos this weekend. Not only did he drive brilliantly, his emotional yet gracious reaction to ultimate defeat in the world championship proved that he is a top bloke. He didn’t hesistate to congratulate Lewis Hamilton after the race, when all around him Hamiton’s critics were looking for excuses or claiming that the McLaren driver was “lucky” to snatch fifth place on the last lap.

Massa is a credit to F1 - unlike his compatriots in the stands, many of whom booed at the merest glance on the big screen of Hamilton (and his family), and anything with a McLaren badge on it, throughout the weekend. The boos and whistles rang out loudest as it transpired that Hamilton had done enough to win the championship - from the huge amount of noise coming from the stands, it’s clear that this was not the minority of the crowd.

Anthony Hamilton, interviewed by ITV just after the race, said: “It’s a shame the crowd is doing this, they should be fair sports people.”

He’s right. It was a shame, and just about the only negative to come out of a thrilling weekend of motorsport.

Without getting on too high a horse, we can’t imagine British F1 fans booing Massa at Silverstone if the situation was reversed. Okay, a few random idiots might do so, but not the majority, as seemed to be the case in Interlagos.

Stay classy, Brazil.