FELIPE Massa bemoaned an early collision with Jolyon Palmer after he was forced to retire from yesterday’s German Grand Prix.

The Grove-based Williams driver was clipped on the opening lap and suffered with a lack of pace throughout, before ending a frustrating race by pulling in on lap 36 at Hockenheim.

Massa, who qualified tenth, said: “It’s such a shame that someone hit my rear right tyre on the first lap because it felt like something definitely happened to that area of the car.

“Perhaps a toe issue or something, because the car felt undriveable.

“Although I tried to carry on with the race, I was suffering massively.

“The pace was just so slow to the point where it was better to retire than carry on.”

Teammate Valtteri Bottas scored two points by finishing ninth, but was left frustrated by the longevity of his second stint.

He said: “The race was going OK until Force India managed to get in front of us.

“They did a three-stop and we tried a two-stop.

“There was definitely something wrong with our tyre calculations, because there was no way to get to the end on that set of tyres.

“The stint was just way too long and that really cost us some points.”