Massa insists crash had nothing to do with dizziness

The Brazilian crashed early in the morning session before recording a flying lap, and after inspecting the damage his Williams team was forced to instigate a switch to the spare chassis.

However, in such circumstances the FIA rules ensure that a driver cannot run again on the same day, as the car has to be re-scrutineered the next morning, forcing Massa to sit out FP2 as well.

Massa was adamant that he is fully recovered from the health issue he suffered in Hungary, and felt fine in the car: "I didn't feel dizzy any more since the week after Hungary – for sure I didn't crash because of that."

Massa called Friday at Spa "a day to forget" after losing valuable running.

"I was on the first lap just trying to understand the track," he said. "When I touched the inside kerb in corner seven the rear of the just came round – I lost the rear and I couldn't correct it. It was a very small run-off area, so I couldn't avoid a crash. It was also quite a big crash, the chassis was damaged. For sure it was a mistake.

"So we had to change the chassis, and the FIA didn't allow us to go out because they need to check the car, and they couldn't do it. It was a really a shame because we lost two sessions, so it was a really a day to forget for the team."

Spa is a track where traditionally drivers need a lot of mileage as they build up speed over the weekend, and Massa will be forced to start fresh on Saturday, with no real knowledge of how the 2017 cars behave.

"It's a track where you need to put a lot of confidence in the corners, the high speed and everything, understanding the car, and learning the new car with more downforce on this track. For sure it's not positive what happened today.

"I don't have enough time to understand the car, this is a shame, but I really hope tomorrow will be a different day. I have to drive as much as I can and try to learn this car on this track, the set-up and everything, just to be as prepared as possible for the qualifying."

Another cause for concern for Williams was the fact that Lance Stroll was only 17th in FP2.

"For sure the car didn't show very competitively today," said Massa. "And this is a shame, as we cannot even learn so much from what you see in the other car. So it's just a day to forget, and we need to build up everything from tomorrow."