A SKY SPORTS presenter has given a health update after being struck down with an illness during live coverage of Formula One’s season opener in Australia.
UK audiences are certainly familiar with the stars of Sky’s F1 coverage including David Croft, Martin Brundle, Karun Chandhok and Bernie Collins.
But on the broadcaster’s sister channel in Germany, presenter Sandra Baumgartner went missing halfway through the race.
The 43-year-old, who has worked in F1 since 2012, had been seen conducting interviews in Melbourne before the race.
However, she suddenly went missing from the broadcast about halfway through Sunday’s race.
Colleague Peter Hardenacke clarified she had been taken ill, saying: “Some of you will miss Sandra. We will! She said goodbye during the race. She’s not feeling well.
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“She already had a headache yesterday after the first day and qualifying. Best wishes, Sandra! Get well soon.
“We hope you’ll be back hosting the warm-up for the Chinese Grand Prix on Thursday at the latest.”
Baumgartner has since taken to Instagram to post an update on her condition and confirm she will return to duty for the warm-ups of next weekend’s race in China before her next race day in Bahrain on April 16.
Taking to social media, she said: “Melbourne was great until I got ill. I’ll be back on Thursday for the warm-up for the next race.
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“My next race on-site is Bahrain and not because of illness, that was already planned.”
Lando Norris won the chaotic season opener with Max Verstappen coming a close second and George Russell coming in third.
Six drivers crashed out thanks to the changeable conditions, including rookie Isack Hadjar who was left in tears after crashing out on the formation lap – he was later consoled by Anthony Hamilton.
But one of the highlights of the weekend – or lowlights if you are a Ferrari fan – were the radio exchanges heard on radio with both Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc with their engineers.
Hamilton was heard blasting an expletive down the radio at a major Ferrari strategy blunder after repeatedly asking his engineer to “leave me to it”.
In Leclerc’s case, he complained about water in his seat from a possible leak before his engineer said the issue “must be the water”, with the driver sarcastically replying: “Let’s add that to the words of wisdom.”
The Chinese Grand Prix weekend also presents the first Sprint Race weekend of the season.
Source: Motorsport - thesun.co.uk
