Oct.4 (GMM) Ferrari insists Felipe Massa's engineer Rob Smedley was not "malicious" when he ordered the Brazilian to "destroy" Lewis Hamilton's race recently in Singapore.

A trio of paddock regulars this week have already played down the content of the radio call that preceded Massa colliding with McLaren's Hamilton during the night race just over a week ago.

But some publications, notably "English daily papers" according to Ferrari's online columnist The Horse Whisperer, suspected a sinister motive.

"It's true that (Smedley) was caught up in the heat of the moment and chose to use the verb 'destroy' at some point," said the anonymous Ferrari columnist.

"It might not have been the most politically correct choice of word, but it definitely carried no malicious intent, especially when you take into account that Rob is a Middlesbrough lad, born and bred!" the writer added.

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