F1 legend apologises after crazy kart fight

Recently retired Formula One legend Felipe Massa has been forced to apologise after his teammate was involved in a wild kart fight in Brazil.

Crazy footage of the incident showed two drivers coming to blows after they crashed into one another at the 500 Milhas de Kart event.

Massa was leading the race with teammate Rodrigo Dantas in one of the team's other karts locked in a duel with second-placed Tuka Rocha.

The pair repeatedly made contact with one another before Rocha forced Dantas off the track and into the tyre wall, causing all hell to break loose.

Both drivers got out of their karts, with a furious Dantas rag-dolling his rival to the ground before laying into his with a series of punches.

Lucky for Rocha his face was well protected by a helmet because Dantas was letting fly with a flurry of hits.

Security guards eventually stepped in to break up the altercation, with all the karts belonging to the two teams disqualified for the fracas.

A team containing Formula One legend Rubens Barrichello ended up winning the event.

Massa said there had been a running battle between the two teams over the course of the race, which lasted almost 12 hours.

"From what I saw, the whole team should be disqualified," Massa said in reference to the previous clashes between the teams.

"But that did not happen, and what happened next was a war inside the track.

"For me, this is very sad and sadder still to see my team within that. It was not my decision – I was driving the [leading] kart.

"But I apologise to everyone for what happened today, because I have never seen anything like it in my career.

"The competition is inside the track, but never in this way."

Officials said the guilty parties would be dealt with swiftly.

"We will take appropriate steps to banish the culprits from these unfortunate scenes," event organiser Felipe Giaffone said.

The unsavoury scenes brought back memories of a nasty NASCAR brawl between Joey Logano and Kyle Busch earlier this year.