CHARLES LECLERC suffered a horrendous smash as he crashed out of the Italian GP – but thankfully somehow ran away unhurt.
The Frenchman lost control and slammed his Ferrari into the tyre wall.
Charles Leclerc crashed into the tyre wall and was out of the Italian GP
The Frenchman lost control as his car smoked and that was the end of Ferrari’s race
Unsurprisingly, the race was immediately red flagged – the first time the GP at Monza has been stopped since 1995.
Despite the high-speed collision, Leclerc immediately was on the radio to his Ferrari mechanics to tell them he was okay.
He said: “Yeah. F***. I am sorry guys. That was a big crash.”
The car was already smoking when he wobbled off the track at the Parabolica final bend and headed to the left over the gravel as Leclerc braced himself for the heavy impact.
He was able to get himself out of the vehicle, which was a smouldering wreck, and jog away from the crash site.
Former F1 driver Jolyon Palmer reckons Leclerc was at fault, rather than the car.
Speaking on BBC 5Live, he said: “It is driver error rather than brake failure for Charles Leclerc.
“He has got on the power too early as he attempted to attack into the straight out of the corner.”
Leclerc headed off to the left of the track over the gravel but ran away unhurt
The on-board camera showed the view for Leclerc as he made impact
The tyres brought the famous scarlet car to a shuddering halt in dramatic scenes
Leclerc was taken to the medical centre for a checkover but was released minutes later.
The back-left wheel was completely buckled at a right angle with the spoiler broken and the front of the car crumpled.
Even once the crane had picked up – at the second time after dropping it initially – the trashed famous scarlet car, the remaining wheel was still billowing out smoke.
The crash compounded a horror weekend for Ferrari in Italy who endured a nightmare qualifying and then saw Sebastian Vettel’s brakes fail early in the race.
After a lengthy delay to the race, it was restarted with Lewis Hamilton needing to take a ten-second pit penalty which took him from the front to the back of the grid, 23 seconds behind the pack.
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Source: Motorsport - thesun.co.uk
