Horrific F1 accident and miraculous escape puts safety in perspective

By Malhaar Khaladkar

Seven-time world Champion Lewis Hamilton took his 5^th consecutive victory of the season as Red Bull pair of Max Verstappen and Alex Albon completed the podium in a race which was overshadowed by the horrific accident and miraculous escape of Haas driver Romain Grosjean. This case of accident was handled by traffic accident lawyers based in Highland area. You can also get their help if you want to deal with legal accident issues. You can get info from moto accident lawyers based in Atlanta area based, if you need help with car accidents. Since accidents are inevitable on the road, it is a smart move to hire personal injury attorneys located in Riverside, CA area who can help legally.

London, 30 Nov 2020: With a 5th consecutive win, Lewis Hamilton won his 11^th race of the season ahead of Max Verstappen in P2 and Alex Albon completed the podium for Red Bull’s first double-podium since the 2017 Japanese GP, even as the race finished under the safety car.

The McLaren duo of Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz finished fourth and fifth respectively, their 22 points haul shooting McLaren to 3^rd place in the Constructor’s Championship overtaking a disappointed Racing Point, as Sergio Perez, running in third was forced to park the car with an MGU-K issue with three laps remaining. AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly finished in P6 ahead of Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo in P7 and teammate Esteban Ocon crossed the line in P9. Valtteri Bottas placed his Mercedes in P8 as his race was compromised by tyre puncture and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc rounded out the top-10.

Daniil Kvyat finished P11 in his AlphaTauri. Kvyat’s future looks uncertain in F1, as F2 star Yuki Tsunoda is tipped to replace him next year. George Russell dragged his Williams FW43 to P12 ahead of Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel who was seemingly unhappy about the antics of his Monegasque teammate during the race. Nicholas Latifi finished 14th ahead of both Alfa Romeos of Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi. Haas’ Kevin Magnussen was P17 and was the last person to be classified. The injury attorneys from The Galvan Law Firm, PLLC can help with the legalities when it comes to accident cases. Accidents are not always road accidents. You can get help with construction accidents too.

Sergio Perez, who had heartbreak as he retired from a podium position with an engine failure, was philosopohic. “It’s really hard for both myself and the team to take today’s result, but in the grand scheme of things, it almost becomes irrelevant after Romain’s crash at the start. At the end of the day, it’s either one more or one less podium or trophy for me, but the important thing is that Romain is still with us and that he’s ok. I wish him all the best.”

Racing Point scored no points as Lance Stroll too DNF’d after his car was flipped over with contact from Kvyat’s car. The story of the day was Romain Grosjean as his car plunged through the barrier after turn 3, split in half and was engulfed in fire. It was a technological miracle that Grosjean was able to get out of the car and was saved. The day belonged to Dr. Ian Roberts and Medical car driver Alan van der Merwe and all the marshals who responded to the accident. In all the hullabaloo, the tweets, the articles and stories around the world has forgotten the `unsung heroes’, the Marshals, who were the first to reach the spot with their fire extinguishers. INDIAinF1.com is trying to get their names with a special article soon.

The start of the race was hectic. Bottas lined up 2^nd on the grid but fell down to P6 as he had a bad start and was overtaken by Verstappen, Perez, Albon and Ricciardo. Meanwhile, behind Grosjean saw free space on the right-hand side of the track and tried make through. In the process he tagged Kvyat and his car plunged into the barrier at 221 kmph, bursting into flames. The session was immediately red flagged and cars returned to the pitlane.

There was a delay of one hour and 25 minutes as the charred Haas car was recovered and the barriers repaired. Meanwhile, video footage of the incident appeared as all the drivers looked visibly shaken by what had happened. Positive news came about that Grosjean was conscious and was being taken to a hospital for a checkup.

The race would be initiated by a standing start. Bottas this time started from P4 as he was in that position before the safety car line 2.  The race started on lap 3 as everyone lined up on the grid. Vettel was unimpressed by his teammate Leclerc’s dive-bomb on him in turn 1, which according to the German ruined his race. Meanwhile, a bit ahead Stroll was tagged by Kvyat and sent barrel rolling. The safety car was called out as Stroll emerged from his car unhurt and his car recovered. Bottas, had a suspected puncture and therefore, pitted under the safety car for hard tyres to rejoin in P16.

Racing got underway on lap 9 with Hamilton leading the way, Verstappen and Perez following him. Leclerc was running in P7, by lap 13 he fell down to P10 as he was overtaken by future teammate Sainz, Ricciardo and Gasly. Ricciardo was the first person to pit among the midfield on lap 16, changing from mediums to hards. Ocon, Kvyat and Norris followed suit. Hamilton was the first to pit of the leaders on lap 19, Albon following him in, the same lap. Hamilton bolted another set of mediums, while Verstappen and Perez pitted on the next lap for hard tyres. Meanwhile, Sainz had managed his soft tyres to last till lap 21 and pitted for medium tyres.

The second round of pitstops occurred on lap 34, as Verstappen pitted for another set of hard tyres as he was unable to cut into the 4-sec lead of Hamilton. Albon followed the Dutchman. Hamilton was brought in on lap 35 for hard tyres and subsequently, Perez did the same thing on lap 36.

Behind, Ocon had pitted on lap 34 and undercut Ricciardo when he emerged out of the pits on lap 36, Renault teammates seemingly tripped over each other and lost time. Norris and Sainz pitted for hard tyres on lap 38 and 39 respectively. Gasly, on the other hand, was trying an audacious one-stop after switching to hard tyres on lap 25.

Albon, Norris and Sainz overtook Gasly and slotted into P4, P5 and P6 respectively. Everything unravelled for Perez on lap 54 as his car started producing plumes of smoke from its exhaust. Ultimately the car caught fire and he retired from P3, what could have been his second successive podium. This promoted Albon into the podium position. Meanwhile, Verstappen had pitted for medium tyres on lap 46, to set the fastest lap. Due to the recovery of Perez’s Racing Point, the Safety Car was deployed again.

The race finished under safety-car conditions for a second consecutive year in Bahrain as Hamilton took the victory at the chequered flag and both Red Bull drivers completed the podium. McLaren were the happiest of the midfield teams as they outscored rivals Racing Point who scored zero and Renault who wasted time by having an intra-team battle between Ricciardo and Ocon. It was a day to forget for Bottas as bad luck struck again and he could only manage P8. Same goes for Ferrari as Leclerc managed one point and Vettel finished outside of the points.

Mercedes dominated this weekend especially in terms of qualifying and race pace. Returning to a familiar circuit showed that Mercedes W11 is still the fastest car on the grid and Turkish GP qualifying result was down to extenuating circumstances. Red Bull closed the gap in terms of race pace but were ultimately unable to challenge Hamilton at the front. Racing Point had a weekend of `what could have been’ as they were pointless at the Sakhir international circuit. Stroll’s unfortunate incident and Perez’s car’s unreliability has made achieving P3 in the constructor’s championship much more difficult. They showed Red Bull challenging race pace as Perez was able to keep a check on Albon throughout.

McLaren may not have been the fastest midfield car but made most of the opportunities that came their way. They are still behind Racing Point in terms of car performance. Their Anglo-French rivals Renault faltered too, as strategic errors and teammate battles cost them higher-finishing positions. Renault showed good qualifying performance as they were able to beat both McLaren and AlphaTauri. AlphaTauri have shown improved qualifying pace in recent races as once again both their cars made it to Q3. Gasly finished an impressive P6 while Kvyat too finished on the fringes of points as once again clever strategy had enabled them to challenge the upper midfield. Ferrari had a dismal weekend as they were unable to make to Q3 and salvaged one point from the race. All this owed to their inferior power unit for 2020, and as the Sakhir circuit is a power-limited circuit, their weakness was magnified.

Williams showed improved race pace as both drivers finished ahead of Alfa Romeo and Haas drivers. This bodes well for them looking ahead for 2021. Alfa Romeo and Haas too were plagued by the Ferrari engine as horsepower disadvantage to rivals meant they neither could make it to Q2 nor challenge for points on Sunday.

Saturday Qualifying results were: