A pair of scary incidents have punctuated a dramatic close to the first Formula 2 weekend at the Australian Grand Prix.
The frenetic, incident-filled race was punctuated by a crash in the closing laps when Roy Nissany clumsily dropped his car onto the grass in between turn two and three.
He lost control at high speed, spun out, and hit the concrete wall before coming to a halt.
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The Israeli driver exited his car, leaving it behind for trackside marshals to clean up his mess.
Minutes later, Brazilian driver Enzo Fittipaldi – grandson of two-time Formula 1 champion Emerson – lost control of his car.
Having just pitted for a fresh set of tyres, he locked up under braking into turn one and spun out on the grass.
As he tried to get his turbocharged V6 single-seater pointing in the right direction, Fittipaldi slapped the outside wall with his left rear wheel.
The contact appeared innocuous at first, but seconds later the rear suspension failed and his car sharply veered left.
Fittipaldi was lucky the failure didn’t happen a split second earlier as he narrowly missed Nissany’s stricken car.
“So, so frightening with potentially marshals over the wall clearing up the car of Nissany,” said Alex Brundle in commentary.
By the end of the 33-lap affair, it was Red Bull junior driver Ayumu Iwasa of Japan who kept a cool head to take victory.
He led home Frenchman Theo Pourchaire and Monegasque Arthur Leclerc, brother of Ferrari driver Charles.
Australia’s own Jack Doohan finished ninth on the road, but was promoted to eighth after a penalty to Isack Hadjar ahead of him.
Doohan looked like he might miss out on points until Hadjar’s penalty and another incident that saw Alpine junior Victor Martins of ART Grand Prix collide with MP Motorsport’s Dennis Hauger.
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