The hapless mechanic whose trigger-finger reduced Ferrari to farce at the Singapore Grand Prix will be on pit-lane duty again this weekend in Japan.

Ferrari reckons his embarrassment over the blunder was punishment enough.

He was the cause of Felipe Massa's disastrous Singapore outing and could well have cost the Brazilian the world championship and Ferrari the Constructors' title.

The pit-stop scene that his split-second action sparked was absolute pandemonium and left Ferrari the laughing stock.

The over-eager mechanic jumped the gun on releasing race leader Massa from his pit-stop as teammate Kimi Raikkonen waited in line to refuel.

He mistakenly activated a green-for-go signal in Massa's cockpit while the crew was still re-fuelling and the driver roared back into the action nearly taking out Force India's Adrian Sutil in the madcap melee.

The problem was the fuel line was still attached and trailing 12-feet behind Massa's car as it sped off down pit-lane, swiping two Ferrari mechanics off their feet as it swerved back towards the on-track action.

Overweight back-up boys

Massa halted before the exit and had to sit and wait as a gang of his back-up boys, some of them distinctly overweight, puffed and panted their way the length of pit-lane to wrestle the pipe free.

It was a scene that will haunt all those involved for a long time to come. The weeping mechanic was inconsolable and his two floored workmates lucky to get off without serious injury.

Massa was further hampered by a drive-through penalty for his near miss with Sutil and he ended up down among the also-rans in 13th place.

But, given his intense upset and heartbreak at his result, Massa's thoughts were directed at the ill-fated mechanic and he made a point of sympathising with him.

"I feel sorry for him," he said. "We all make mistakes, drivers and mechanics alike. So I don't blame him."

I would bet Ferrari boss Luca Montezemolo regrets his reflex criticism of the Singapore street circuit when he blasted: "It would be better off as the stage for a circus."

It was his own Prancing Horse team that turned the race into a Big Top fiasco.

Angry F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone, whose idea it was to run the first-ever Grand Prix under lights, retorted: "We should be grateful to Mr Montezemolo. Ferrari provided the clowns."