I know there were moments of real terror on the occasion of the start of the British GP. When the traffic lights went out Max Verstappen made the most of the Pirelli soft tires to immediately overtake Carlos Sainz, while behind the leaders there was a multiple contact with Guanyu Zhou, George Russell and Pierre Gasly as protagonists.
The Mercedes driver, who started from the eighth position, started slowly due to the hard tires and was immediately joined by the Frenchman from AlphaTauri.
Gasly, however, found himself in the middle between Zhou’s Alfa Romeo Sauber and Russell’s Mercedes and when the Englishman narrowed the trajectory Pierre could not avoid the impact with the British rear left.
This contact triggered a domino effect. Russell, now out of control of his car, collided with Zhou’s rear right and the Chinese driver’s Alfa Romeo Sauber literally capsized and then ended up upside down, covering the entire escape route on the roll bar. and finish your race beyond the protective barriers after having climbed over the line of tires.
The images were chilling, especially seeing how the Alfa Romeo Sauber’s roll bar disintegrated as soon as the car rolled over.
It was the halo that saved Zhou’s life. The pilots head protection device, introduced in 2018, was the star of this Sunday. In fact, already during the Formula 2 Feature Race, the halo protected Roy Nissany’s boss during the violent collision with Dennis Hauger’s car.
The race was immediately suspended with a red flag to allow the commissioners and medical personnel to rescue Zhou and fortunately, according to the first official announcements, the conditions of the Chinese would be good.
During the hiatus, George Russell came in front of the media microphones. Visibly shaken in the face, the Mercedes driver explained the dynamics of the accident.
“I’m glad to know that Zhou is fine after this horrible accident. We tried a chance starting with hard tires, but I had no grip and I was swallowed up by all the other cars immediately after the start and I was hit in the rear ”.
“When I saw Zhou’s car fly it was scary. I immediately went to see if he was okay because I saw him fly towards the stands. We know the dangers of motorsport, but today they have been highlighted ”.
For Russell the first race at Silverstone with the Mercedes colors was a real nightmare. In qualifying the Stella team messed up and George only got the eighth time, while in the race, for the first time this season, Russell did not see the checkered flag, putting an end to a streak of positive results that had always had him. seen arriving in the top 5 since the beginning of the season.
“I have a lot of emotions right now. It’s my home race and I was thrilled to be able to compete at Silverstone ”.
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