SUZUKA: Frenchman Pierre Gasly went on a rampage after passing at high speed a recovery vehicle being sent into heavy rain while the safety car was deployed at Sunday’s (October 9) Formula One Japanese Grand Prix .
The race was stopped shortly afterwards.
“I could have killed myself,” said the AlphaTauri driver over the team radio. “This is unacceptable! What happened? I can’t believe it.”
The 26-year-old, who had hit a sponsor panel that had been displaced by a first-lap crash by Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, had been looking for a new front wing and was trying to catch up with the rest of the field.
Sainz’s crash was one of several incidents on the first lap as the drivers struggled with poor visibility and looking for grip on the rain-soaked tarmac.
Images showed the light panels next to the route changing from amber to red just before Gasly drove past the recovery vehicle.
The sports association FIA said the race was neutralized by the safety car.
Stewards said they were investigating the incident, with Gasly under investigation for speeding under red flag conditions.
Other teams and drivers have expressed concern over an incident that recalls the crash of Frenchman Jules Bianchi at the Japanese Grand Prix in October 2014.
Bianchi suffered serious head injuries after colliding with a recovery vehicle in the wet and died in hospital in July the following year.
“How did this happen!? We lost a life in this situation years ago. We risk our lives, especially in such conditions. We want to race. But that…is unacceptable,” McLaren’s Lando Norris said on Twitter.
“I think we need to discuss a tractor on the track…we can make it short: this must NOT happen guys,” said Austrian ex-racer Alex Wurz, chairman of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association.
Sainz told Sky Sports: “I still don’t know why we keep risking having a tractor on the track in these conditions.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, hoping for a second consecutive title, led from pole at the red flag, with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in second.
There was no indication of when racing might resume as the clock was running out.