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.
Tainan TSG Hawks slugger Steven Moya, who is leading the CPBL in home runs, has withdrawn from this weekend’s All-Star Game after the unexpected death of his wife. Moya’s wife began feeling severely unwell aboard a plane that landed at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Friday evening. She was rushed to a hospital, but passed away, the Hawks said in a statement yesterday. The franchise is assisting Moya with funeral arrangements and hopes fans who were looking forward to seeing him at the All-Star Game can understand his decision to withdraw. According to Landseed Medical Clinic, whose staff attempted to save Moya’s wife,
Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt yesterday backed Nick Champion de Crespigny to be the team’s “roving scavenger” after handing him a shock debut in the opening Test against the British and Irish Lions Test in Brisbane. Hard man Champion de Crespigny, who spent three seasons at French side Castres before moving to the Western Force this year, is to get his chance tomorrow with first-choice blindside flanker Rob Valetini not fully fit. His elevation is an eye-opener, preferred to Tom Hooper, but Schmidt said he had no doubt about his abilities. “I keep an eye on the Top 14 having coached there many years
ON A KNEE: In the MLB’s equivalent of soccer’s penalty-kicks shoot-out, the game was decided by three batters from each side taking three swings each off coaches Kyle Schwarber was nervous. He had played in Game 7 of the MLB World Series and homered for the US in the World Baseball Classic (WBC), but he had never walked up to the plate in an All-Star Game swing-off. No one had. “That’s kind of like the baseball version of a shoot-out,” Schwarber said after homering on all three of his swings, going down to his left knee on the final one, to overcome a two-homer deficit. That held up when Jonathan Aranda fell short on the American League’s final three swings, giving the National League a 4-3 swing-off win after
Seattle’s Cal Raleigh defeated Tampa Bay’s Junior Caminero 18-15 in Monday’s final to become the first catcher to win the Major League Baseball Home Run Derby. The 28-year-old switch-hitter, who leads MLB with 38 homers this season, won US$1 million by capturing the special event for sluggers at Atlanta’s Truist Park ahead of yesterday’s MLB All-Star Game. “It means the world,” Raleigh said. “I could have hit zero home runs and had just as much fun. I just can’t believe I won. It’s unbelievable.” Raleigh, who advanced from the first round by less than 25mm on a longest homer tiebreaker, had his father