Formula One news

Column: Flying out of the race

That was one hell of a weekend! The Grand Prix weekend in Imola started really good. During the free practice sessions on Friday and Saturday the car did really well and I managed to set competitive lap times. But then bad luck came around the corner…

On Saturday, during the qualifying session, we had problems with the car all of a sudden. There was an electronic problem in the Toyota engine, a problem they never saw before in testing unfortunately. The engine was running on only seven cylinders instead of eight so I lost a lot of power.

Then on Sunday I got rolled over after being hit by Yuji Ide. I think I went up-side-down about four times! While being in the car its not as exciting as you've probably seen it on television though. It all went really quick and before I knew it I was in the gravel. While flying in the air I managed to turn of the engine so there wouldn't be any fuel coming out of the car, so it was all save I think. After I walked away from the crash I saw my car looked completely destroyed, but I haven't even got a bruise on my body. That's how safe Formula 1 is nowadays.

A lot has been said about Yuji Ide. I don't think the FIA should pull in his Super License or anything. He made a mistake… Any rookie can make a mistake and young talents should receive a second chance in this sport, there are already too many old guys hanging around for years in F1.

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