Felipe Massa has woken up and made significant progress in his recovery from life-threatening injuries sustained in a crash during Hungarian grand prix qualifying on Saturday.
The Ferrari driver is being treated at Budapest's AEK military Hospital where doctors offered an optimistic outlook at a press conference on Monday evening.
"In the last 24 hours some major changes have gone through in the condition of Felipe Massa," said Colonel doctor Lajos Zsiros.
"His condition continues to be stable."
Massa has been taken out of an induced coma and is responding to questions.
"As we speak he is sleepy, but he gives adequate answers to the questions we ask him, and he can move his arms and legs spontaneously," Zsiros added.
"Right now he has no fever, and we have removed the drain tube from his wound.
"Further improvement of his condition can be expected. During the night we do not plan to do any more interventions on him."
Massa was hurt when a spring which had fallen from the back of Rubens Barrichello's car struck him on the helmet at 162 mph, dazing him and causing him to lose control of his car and crash into the tyre barriers at high speed.
The accident has left questions over the 28-year-old's future in Formula One.
Earlier on Monday, it was thought that the main threat was an apparent injury to Massa's left eye, which was thought to have been suffered when his helmet was penetrated by the spring.
Professor Robert Veres, the surgeon who operated on Massa over the weekend, had said: "He has suffered some damage to the eye.
"We don't know if he'll be able to race again."
Eye problem
However, Zsiros offered no further information on the condition of Massa's eye at this Monday evening's press conference.
"It is too early to answer this question," he said. "We can give no positive neither negative answer to this, because at this stage the vision cannot be examined."
Zsiros also added that it may be some time before they can be sure if Massa has avoided long-term injuries from the accident.
"There is no such thing as 'this condition', because every case is different," he said. "Of course it isn't impossible.
"There is no interval which we can define, but I would say it should be from one week to 10 days."
Also at the press conference was Dino Altmann, the chief medical officer of Massa's home Brazilian grand prix.
"He spoke, he wanted to know what happened to him. And he had some questions," Altmann said.
"I would like to say that the family is very happy with the treatment Felipe is receiving here, and there's no question about transfer at the moment."
Massa's family have flown to Budapest in the wake of the accident.
Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo visited Massa in hospital on Mondat and insisted no decisions would be taken over the Italian marquee's direction for the rest of the season until the driver's situation was clarified.
"Our first priority is Felipe's recovery, Felipe's progress and so on," he said.
"Felipe's been an important member of the Ferrari family for many years, since he arrived as a kid, so we all hope he can come back soon."
Di Montezemlo added: "(Team principal Stefano) Domenicali has to think and make good proposals for the future.
"We don't want to wait too long for Felipe, but our first priority now is to find out about Felipe, and only at that moment will we take a decision."
After Sunday's race at the Hungaroring, Massa was visited by Ferrari team principal Domenicali, team-mate Kimi Raikkonen and Brawn GP's Barrichello and boss Ross Brawn.
FIA investigation
FIA President Max Mosley has, meanwhile, asked for an investigation to be launched into recent debris-related accidents in F1 and Formula Two.
The FIA Safety Commission, which is made up of medical and technical representatives from all areas of motor sport, will submit a report and recommendations to the World Motor Sport Council.
It follows the death of teenage F2 driver Henry Surtees - son of former world champion John - at Brands Hatch earlier this month when his car was struck by a wheel which had come off a rival's car, while this weekend saw Massa's incident and the working loose of a wheel from Fernando Alonso's Renault.
Early suggestions are that Massa's hi-tech helmet - the 8860, developed over eight years by the FIA - prevented his injuries from being far worse.
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