Massa gets HANS on de la Rosa.

Brazilian Formula One wild child Felipe Massa was the first Grand Prix driver to put the HANS - Head And Neck Support - system through its paces with some minor contact with de la Rosa in Sunday's Grand Prix.

Massa, who has lost his Sauber seat for next year, had one of his more impetuous races and his contact with de la Rosa's Jaguar put both drivers out of the race.

Massa, starting from fourteenth on the grid, kept his nose clean at the start of the race. But it was after the first ten laps were over that the action started for Massa and de la Rosa. After much cat and mouse the Brazilian found himself passing the Jaguar and though some tyre-bodywork interaction was the order of the day. De la Rosa was out immediately whereas Massa had a brief reprieve until his tyre called it a day.

Pedro de la Rosa was certainly displeased with Massa's desire to give the HANS systen as comprehensive a debut test as possible. "I managed to get myself into 14th position and then found myself stuck behind Massa who did the most inexplicable things I have seen on a race track for ages. He kept moving all over the place and every time I made an effort to pass him, he blocked me," the Spaniard said after his enforced exit.

"My patience was running out and I then made a move to pass him at the Ascari chicane when he moved over again and took my front wing off on lap 15. I had no choice to call it a day and take up the matter with the race stewards who are now looking into his behaviour," said a far from happy de la Rosa.

There are, of course, two sides to every story. Massa's account differed from Pedro's. "I had enough fuel to do a single stop run, so I was at a disadvantage early on and lost places after a reasonable start," Massa explained. "Then on lap 15 de la Rosa cut the first chicane, but instead of moving over to let me by he stayed ahead for a lap. He was so slow going down to Ascari that I put my car in the middle of the track and, as far as I was concerned, I was past him. Maybe he hit the throttle again. Whatever, we touched, and that damaged either my right rear suspension or the tyre, so a lap later I was out."

Despite this, Massa did feel he had properly tested the HANS system which will be compulsory next year. "The only good thing is that I became the first driver to race in F1 with the HANS safety collar today, and it gave me no problems all weekend."

If he continues to drive like he did in Monza for the final two races Massa's chances of wearing the HANS system in a race in 2003 will be severely diminished.