Fernando Alonso led home a one-two finish for Ferrari in the German Grand Prix, albeit with the whiff of team orders hanging in the air.
On the anniversary of a crash in Hungary a year ago that came close to costing him his life, Massa was forced to settle for second best at Hockenheim after leading for most of the opening 48 laps.
That was until he eventually gave way to Alonso after what appeared to be a coded message from the pit wall to allow the Spaniard by.
It helped Alonso to his 23rd career win, and his second this year that puts the double world champion firmly back in the title hunt as he now trails by 34 points championship leader Lewis Hamilton who was forced to settle for fourth.
Sebastian Vettel yet again bungled his start to drop to third out of the first bend and finished there 62 laps later.
There was some consolation for Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button as they got the better of Mark Webber to finish fourth and fifth.
And the 2008 champion stretched his lead in the driver’s championship to 14 points with eight rounds remaining.
But the victory may have come at an enormous price to Maranello’s reputation as it was surrounded by suspicions soon after the finish that Massa had been given a coded order to hand victory to his team-mate.
On lap 47 Massa’s engineer radioed: "OK, so, Fernando is faster than you."
And immediate he was blasted by ex-racer Anthony Davidson blasted: "That was as blatant as it comes. He might as well have put his arm out of the cockpit and waved him through.
"We heard the message, the secret code. It's as clear as day, as soon as we heard that message. But at the end of the day if Massa had been able to pull away from Alonso, he wouldn't have got that message.
"The race would have ended in tears if they hadn't swapped positions, because Alonso would have tried something, we know he would. That's the world we live in, I'm sorry. It's about the team."