After Jenson Button ludicrously pulled up in the Red Bull Racing pitbox at the Chinese Grand Prix, Patronise take a look back at some of the other disastrous incidents to have occurred in the slow lane throughout history.
1) David Coulthard, Australia 1995 Driving his final race for Williams-Renault, Coulthard had outsprinted polesitter and team mate Damon Hill into the first corner and led confidently until the first round of pitstops. Sadly for the Scot his race was to last no longer for, as the world feed cut to his onboard camera, he unbelievably and highly embarrassingly slid into the wall on the outside of the right hander on the way into the pits, breaking his suspension and bringing his season to a premature close. Slight mitigation was evidenced later by Roberto Moreno, who managed to spin his Forti in exactly the same place, suggesting the track was rather slippery. Still funny though.
Chortle at DC's Adelaide fail, and get scared by Murray Walker's guttural 'Oooooh!' when the crash happens, here.
2) Nigel Mansell, Portugal 1989
The 1989 Ferrari had an all-singing, all-dancing semi-automatic gearbox, but it was to prove Il Leone's downfall in Estoril (although at least it didn't fail for once, like it had for most of the season). Mansell had taken the lead from team mate Gerhard Berger, and pitted for fresh tyres, only to bizarrely drive around his pit crew and pull infront of their box. This wouldn't have been a disaster if he had allowed his team to pull him backwards but no, Mansell selected reverse gear (completely illegal in the pits of course) with his paddles and drove backwards to be serviced.
This earned him disqualification from the race, but there was further controversy when Mansell claimed he didn't see the Black Flag, and attempted an impossible overtaking move on Championship contender Ayrton Senna, punting him out of the race and earning a ban from the next event at Jerez in Spain.
Watch highlights of the whole 1989 Portuguese GP, including Mansell's pit fail, here.
3) Nigel Mansell, Portugal 1991
Amazingly two years later it was all to go horribly wrong for the Englishman again in the Estoril pitlane. Again Mansell had passed his team mate, this time Riccardo Patrese in the second Williams, to take the lead, and peeled off into the pits. Williams had a reputation for generally slower stops than most, but a tremendous 7.75 second stop saw Mansell seemingly back on his way to the victory he badly needed to keep his title hopes alive.
Tragically, the next camera angle showed Mansell stopped against the pit wall with only 3 wheels on his wagon, the right rear having detatched itself and made a break for freedom into a garage. To make matters worse, Mansell returned to the track and climbed back to 6th, setting fastest lap, but was again disqualified as his team had worked on his car in the pit lane itself.
Watch Mansell's tyre derp unfold here.
4) Felipe Massa, Singapore 2008
Another disaster befell a race leader and Championship chaser in Singapore in 2008, a race which was infamously 'fixed' by Renault and Fernando Alonso. Nelsinho Piquet in the second Renault crashed on lap 14, necessitating the need for the Safety Car.
This meant a mass charge into the pits, and it was at this point that Felipe Massa probably lost the race and more than likely the 2008 title as a result. Ferrari had developed an electronic 'traffic light' system rather than the simple lollipop, whereby the driver would be given a green light when he was free to leave his box. Sadly for Felipe, the light turned green while his fuel hose was still attached, meaning that he made a break for freedom together with the errant hose. Having stopped at the end of the lane to have the hose removed, he was then given a penalty for an unsafe release and later spun before trailing home 13th and pointless.
Watch Massa's 2008 championship hopes fall apart in the Singapore pit lane here.
5) Lewis Hamilton, Canada 2008
One of two famous pit lane mishaps to befall Hamilton, this one again occurred under Safety Car conditions. Adrian Sutil was forced to park his fiery Force India which brought out the Mercedes, and caused everyone to pile into the pits, with Hamilton leading from Kimi Raikkonen and Robert Kubica. The pack was passing the pit exit which meant the red light was on, which saw Raikkonen and Kubica park side by side at the exit of the pits. Hamilton however completed failed to acknowledge the red light until it was too late, and piled into the back of Raikkonen's Ferrari, ending both of their races, while Nico Rosberg also failed to react and hit the back of Hamilton's McLaren. The Briton was punished with a 10-place grid penalty at the next Grand Prix, while Kubica went on to win his first race.
Watch Hamilton's 'pit stop of his life' again here.
6) Jos Verstappen, Germany 1994
Perhaps the most infamous incident of them all occurred at Hockenheim in 1994, the first year of the return of refuelling stops to Formula 1. Jos Verstappen in his Benetton had started from 19th, but had avoided a multi-car accident on the first lap to be running solidly when he made the first of what would have been two stops on Lap 15. Three seconds into the stop, fuel began to spray out of the hose, and within a further two seconds the car was almost completely engulfed in flames, along with several mechanics and of course Verstappen himself. Thankfully he managed to jump free and complete disaster was averted by the superb and swift work of nearby fire marshals. It later emerged that Benetton had removed a filter from the supplied refuelling equipment, for which they escaped major punishment from the FIA.
See Verstappen's impromptu barbeque, and hear Murray Walker's exceptional handling of the whole unpleasantness here.
Trackback(0)
TrackBack URI for this entryComments (0)
Subscribe to this comment's feedWrite comment
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
