LONDON
Felipe Massa, a former teammate of Formula 1 driver Michael Schumacher who suffered life-threatening injuries after a skiing accident in December, said he had made small responses with his mouth during a visit to his hospital.
According to stories published in the UK's Daily Express newspaper on Friday, Massa said he is “very positive” about the 45-year-old’s condition
"He looks normal, and he also gave some reactions with the mouth and everything. So it's positive to look at him. I have no experience to say anything. I'm not a doctor. But when I saw him, for me, it looked very positive," Massa said.
Prior to this week's second pre-season test in Bahrain, Massa visited Schumacher at the Grenoble hospital where the former Ferrari star has been recovering.
“I saw him, I talked to him, I told him everything I did in Jerez (at the first test), about my car, the new team (Williams), everything. I told him to wake up many times. I'm positive. We need to believe. It's always very difficult to say because I have zero experience about what the doctors say," Massa said.
"He's a very strong man, a very great man and I really hope he can wake up, and I really hope he can enjoy his life again."
It is almost eight weeks since Schumacher was placed in an induced coma following a skiing accident.
He required two operations to remove blood clots from his brain and has only just begun the "waking-up process."
Last week Schumacher's manager Sabine Kehm said he was in the process of being awoken from the coma but would not set a timeline on how long it would take.
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