Formula One driver Felipe Massa says he is close to a full recovery and is aiming to return to racing at the Brazilian Grand Prix in October.
The Brazilian said in an interview with Globo TV late on Sunday that he was aiming to be back for the Oct. 18 race, but it would depend on the results of his weekly tests.
“I don’t know if it will be possible, but I hope to be back in my home race, which is always very special to me,” Massa said. “Maybe even before that, let’s see.”
Massa said his left eye was not yet fully healed from his life-threatening crash at the Hungarian Grand Prix on July 25 that left him hospitalized for nine days with multiple skull fractures.
“I’m improving. I’m still not 100 percent and my sight in the left eye still isn’t 100 percent,” Massa said. “I’m about 85 percent, 90 percent recovered. There is still a bit to go before I’m back to normal.”
Massa is resting in Brazil, saying all he was doing was sleeping, watching a lot of TV and playing video games.
The 28-year-old driver said he still could not remember anything about the crash and was not bothered by images of the accident.
His Ferrari hit a protective barrier after his helmet was hit by a loose part from another car and caused him to lose consciousness in qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix.
ALONSO
Two-time Formula One world champion Fernando Alonso was meanwhile cleared to race at the European Grand Prix in his native Spain after Renault won its appeal on Monday to overturn a one-race suspension.
Motor sport’s governing body had suspended Renault from Sunday’s race in Valencia after the team allowed Alonso to leave the pit lane with a loose wheel during last month’s Hungarian GP.
But the French Motor Sport Federation overturned the suspension before the FIA’s International Court of Appeal at the FIA’s Paris headquarters on Monday.
Renault was instead fined US$50,000.
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