Formula One news

Drain cover problems were known at Shanghai

The Shanghai International Circuit knew about the problems with the drain cover in Turn 10, which made Montoya to retire in the Chinese Grand Prix on Sunday. Montoya ran over the kerbs when the drain came lose cut his tyre and damaging his McLaren. In June though the same sort of incident happened in a V8-Supercar race.

The Australian V8-Supercars visited the circuit earlier this year in June when driver Mark Winterbottom hit the kerbs and drain. The drain came loss and ripped the bottom of his car in two pieces and even damaged the driver's seat a bit. Fortunately at the time Winterbottom came out of the car unhurt. "It wasn't until the next morning before I realised I was pretty lucky. The car got very damaged though," he said.

In 2004 when the DTM series visited Shanghai for a race through the streets of Shanghai there was the same sort of problem. Worksmen had to weld the manhole covers after an incident with Bernd Mayländer.

Maybe the Chinese organisation will be able to fix the track for next season…

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