The Brazilian slammed into the Stowe barriers at high speed after his Ferrari snapped into a spin on oil spilt by Fernando Alonso's Renault.
"It was a big crash, but that's part of the game and I have had much worse accidents in my career," said Massa.
"I didn't see any flags and I had approached the corner in the usual way and then I totally lost control of the car under braking.
"I tried to slow down, but the impact was still pretty violent."
The accident did severe damage to the rear of Massa's Ferrari, but the team managed to repair the car in time for him to take part in the second half of afternoon practice.
"The most important thing is that we were able to fix the car and in the end we didn't lose that much time as it wasn't planned for me to do many laps in the morning," Massa said.
"I want to thank all the lads for the work they did: they were fantastic and they didn't stop for a moment right up to the very end of the second session."
Team boss Stefano Domenicali also praised his squad's efforts following the crash.
"I want to praise our mechanics, who did an extraordinary job in repairing Felipe's car," he said.
""Given the amount of damage and the short time available they were really great."
Massa -who ended the morning fastest of all despite the accident - believes the team is in good shape despite today's disruption.
"We came to Silverstone with a good starting point after the tests we did here last week and I think we are going in the right direction," he said.
