Watch: F1 fans call for driver ban after 'terrifying' near-miss at Imola Grand Prix
The Emilia Romagna Grand Prix made headlines with Mercedes taking out the constructors championship for a seventh straight time, while Aussies were thrilled to see Daniel Ricciardo again on the podium.
But social media has revealed a terrifying series of events late in the race that revealed an unnecessarily dangerous moment for the back markers.
Ricciardo was sitting in fifth when Max Verstappen’s had a sudden rear tyre puncture, seeing the Aussies former Red Bull teammate crash out of the race.
It proved important for Ricciardo to snatch his second third-place finish in three weeks after Racing Point’s Sergio Perez inexplicably pitted.
The Verstappen crash also saw Williams’ George Russell crash while on the edge of his first F1 points finish while trying to keep the tyres warm behind the safety car.
It meant the safety car was out for some time and allowed the lapped back markers to unlap themselves.
However, while much of the attention was on what it meant for the front of the grid, the lapped cars were waved past the safety car to return to the back of the field, but the marshals were still on the track in very dangerous scenes, with Alfa Romeo pair Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi, Williams’ Nicholas Latifi and Haas’ Romain Grosjean, Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel and Racing Point’s Lance Stroll all passing marshals on the track between turn 10 and 11.
Reddit user u/BlackGT86 shared videos of each of the incidents as well as sharing their confusion about why it was allowed to happen.
“I don‘t know why the FIA decided to do this, it makes no sense to allow the lapped cars to unlap themselves while marshals are still on track,” they wrote.
The Alfa Romeos were told to push with Raikkonen slowing right down when he saw the marshals.
Grosjean was warned about the marshals but when he drop past he said “It’s a bit dangerous to leave marshals on”.
Vettel was far from happy seeing the marshals on the track.
“Tell them to watch out, the marshals are on the track,” he said over team radio. “That is very very dangerous, tell the marshals to get out.”
But the final driver to go past was Stroll, who didn’t appear to slow down as he was told to push, flying past the marshals at near full speed.
Looks like cars were told to unlap themselves while marshals were still on track 😱 Stroll flies by the Russell accident at full racing speed. The onboard vid is like something from the 1960s 😳😳😳 https://t.co/Ip1r9LbUUT
— Tom Bellingham (@TommyWTF1) November 1, 2020
Thread: https://t.co/f8X5nlJUXX https://t.co/7w66UiGkHB pic.twitter.com/6WONwxRuX2
The Reddit post calls Stroll’s “the most dangerous”, although all the drivers could be forgiven as lapped cars are usually only allowed to overtake when the marshals are off the track.
It was a horror day for Stroll whose race was essentially ruined on the first lap when he ruined his front wing in a bingle with Renault’s Esteban Ocon.
Lance Stroll with another shocker.
— Ben Hunt (@benjhunt) November 1, 2020
At the back of the pack until Red Bull’s Alexander Albon spun out late, Stroll also overshot his pit box, knocking his front jackman over.
It was a surprising incident but the pit crew member was reportedly alright with medic checking the unlucky mechanic who was “bruised” but conceded it was “nothing serious”.
Stroll said of the incident: “At the final pit stop, I had really cold brakes and that meant I overshot the pit box. I’m really glad to hear that my mechanic is OK – that’s the most important thing.”
Stroll has had a difficult week after the Portuguese Grand Prix with Max Verstappen erupting at him in practice and Lando Norris taking aim during the race when the pair had a crash.
Stroll copped a five second penalty at Portimao but retired from the race. Norris later apologised.
- News.com.au
