Japanese Grand Prix – Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri) brushes against a truck on the track: “I could have killed myself!”

The race management had just released the red flag and the drivers were driving to return to the pits, the time to evacuate the single-seaters of the Thai Alex Albon (Williams), forced to retire following an engine problem, and the Spaniard Carlos Sainz (Ferrari), after an accident on the first lap.

The race direction at the FIA ​​delivered an unconvincing explanation of the circumstances of the presence of this truck. “On the third lap, the safety car was deployed on the track, the race was neutralized, but car 10, which had picked up debris, had just stopped behind the safety car, and resumed the track driving at high speed to catch up with the peloton as conditions deteriorated, quoted Julien Fébreau, commentator of the race on Canal+, live. This is the reason for the red flag presented at that time. Before the car passed the place where there was the debris (of Sainz).”

Then the race management summoned Pierre Gasly at 6 p.m. local time (11 a.m. French time) for a violation of article 57.2 of the sporting code. She accuses the French of having driven at more than 250 km / h – GPS data in support -, after passing the incident area, under a red flag. She was especially singled out by several pilots, like George Russell. “This is not the Pierre Gasly incident. This is the FIA ​​incident“, launched the Briton.

The very dangerous presence of this truck recalled the accident which had caused the death at the age of 25 of Jules Bianchi on this same circuit, on October 5, 2014, on the 42nd lap. In the rain, the Frenchman had lost control of his Marussia in turn 7 and his single-seater got stuck under a lifting device which ended up evacuating the Sauber of the German Adrian Sutil, which left the track in the previous lap. . Back in France, he died after several months in a coma in Nice, his hometown, on July 17, 2015. “It’s disrespectful to Julesdropped Gasly. I’m just happy to be alive. We’ve talked about it a million times“. And we haven’t finished talking about it.