Halo over him: race driver gets lucky
Zhou Guanyu said he was “all clear” yesterday after a frightening first-lap crash that brought the British Grand Prix to an immediate halt as safety crews attended to the only Chinese driver in Formula One.
Zhou’s car slid upside-down across the gravel and his Alfa Romeo seemed to be wedged between fencing and a tyre barrier at the first corner. The race was red flagged and George Russell, one of the drivers involved in the crash, sprinted from his car to the tyre barrier to check on Zhou.
Zhou was taken to the track’s medical centre for observation and credited the head-protecting “halo” device on the cars for saving him.
“I’m ok, all clear. Halo saved me today. Thanks everyone for your kind messages!” he wrote on Twitter.
Alex Albon of Williams was also taken to the medical centre and then his team said he’d been transferred by helicopter to Coventry Hospital for a precautionary check. Albon had spun into the pit wall after being struck by Sebastian Vettel from behind as drivers tried to avoid the incident involving Zhou. Williams said Albon had been “given the all clear” and discharged from hospital.
Russell appeared to be hit from behind at the start and was knocked into Zhou, whose car went flying across a gravel trap and over a tyre wall into the retaining fence. The car was skidding on the halo, then went airborne. It was stuck between the tyre wall and the fence, delaying efforts to extricate Zhou.
Russell, who ran from his car to help Zhou, called it “one of the scariest crashes I’ve ever seen”.
● Carlos Sainz Jr. won his first career Formula One race with a victory at the British Grand Prix — the most dramatic race so far this season. It began with the frightening first-lap crash and ended with intense wheel-to-wheel battles for the podium positions.
Sainz was in the lead with team-mate
Charles Leclerc close behind and, while Ferrari at first said they were “free to fight”, the Italian team then asked Sainz to let Leclerc past to avoid losing time to Lewis Hamilton.
But a safety car came out and Ferrari brought Sainz into the pits for fresher, grippier soft tyres. Leclerc was left on older, hard tyres and Sainz soon passed his teammate to regain the lead and pull away for his first victory in his 150th F1 start.
“Today the win does feel a bit of a relief,” said Sainz. “Honestly, I never stopped believing that this dream was going to come, even though this year has been tough for me.”