'First of all, I am OK': Terrifying new vision of Aussie Jack Doohan's 300km/h F1 crash surfaces
Updated . First published
Alpine has confirmed Australian Formula 1 driver Jack Doohan is "OK" after his high-speed crash as terrifying new vision of the Japanese Grand Prix incident surfaced.
In practice at Suzuka, the 22-year-old lost control at about 300km/h and smashed into a tyre wall, triggering a lengthy red flag.
"We are all relieved to see Jack walk away from his incident in free practice two and glad to see he is OK after his precautionary checks," said Alpine team principal Oli Oakes.
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"It was a misjudgement of not closing the DRS into turn one. It is something to learn from."
Doohan also allayed fears.
"First of all, I am OK after the incident," the F1 rookie said.
"It was a heavy one, something that caught me by surprise, and I will learn from it.
"I know the team has a lot of work ahead to repair the car going into tomorrow, so thanks in advance to them for their efforts."
F1 great Jacques Villeneuve, the winner of the 1997 title, said Doohan was a "passenger" from the moment he lost control.
"At that speed, the amount of downforce they have, there is no reason for a car to lose it, unless there's something going wrong," he said.
Jack Doohan's Alpine was heavily damaged in the crash. Formula 1 via Getty Images
"He lost a couple of tons of downforce suddenly, just at the wrong moment. That was a quick snap. It wasn't a slide; the car just lost it. It looked like he lost all the downforce at the rear."
The crash was a heavy blow for Doohan, who is at risk of losing his race seat to Argentine Franco Colapinto as early as next week.
It also cost him valuable track time. Doohan had earlier sat out of the first practice session, handing his car over to reserve driver Ryō Hirakawa.
Doohan has never raced at Suzuka in an F1 car. His last visit to the track was in Asian Formula 3.
The crash caused a lengthy red flag as the barriers were repaired.
Doohan's car was taken back to the pits in about a million pieces. Formula 1 via Getty Images
Cars had only just returned to the track when the red flags flew again when Fernando Alonso found himself stuck in the gravel trap at the exit of the fast right-hand Degner corner.
They flew twice more in the session to allow marshalls to extinguish grass fires. Weather conditions at the circuit have been hot, dry and windy for much of the week, and the sparks coming off the bottom of the cars ignited the dry grass trackside.
A similar stoppage occurred during practice ahead of last year's Chinese Grand Prix. Organisers sprayed a compound on the grass to keep it moist.
Rain is forecast for later in the weekend at Suzuka.
While the session was disastrous for one Australian, it was successful for the other. Oscar Piastri finished fastest ahead of McLaren teammate Lando Norris.
Qualifying is set for Saturday afternoon (AEDT) and the race will start at 3pm on Sunday.
