Jack Doohan is thankfully OK after a shocking 180mph crash in Japanese Grand Prix practice.
The Australian rookie was on a flying lap in free practice two at Suzuka when his Alpine let go at the fast opening corner.
Having built up speed through the track’s main straight, the impact was a worryingly heavy one, and the 22-year-old had to be helped to the side of the track by stewards.
Speaking over team radio Doohan said: “I’m OK, what happened?”
And Sky Sports’ pitlane reported Ted Kravitz has since offered a further update.
“He is OK. He spent a bit of time at the medical centre and wanted to check his physical body and then his head whether he suffered a concussion,” Kravitz said.
“The team have confirmed to me there was no concussion suffered which is very good.
“They have confirmed that the crash was at 300 kilometres an hour, so that is 180 miles an hour, and the other crucial thing the team are doing is checking the data to see if anything was wrong on the car.
“It’s inconclusive at the moment whether anything broke on the car that they need to know about for the future, not only for Dohaan and the rebuilt car but also his teammate Pierre Gasly and to better understand whether they have some manufacturing or design issue with the car itself.
“They’re going through the data at the moment, it was actually Doohan’s second push lap, he’d done four laps during the day, done an out lap and did an hot lap, he was the beginning of his second hot lap when the accident happened.
“We haven’t seen a crash at this speed and this sort of impact certainly in 2025 and I can’t think of one in 2024. 185 miles an hour. It really shocked the whole pitlane.”
Giving his thoughts on the incident, Joylon Palmer, who raced for Alpine under their previous branding of Renault, said: “He’s turned in flat and still got DRS open.
F1Palmer explained that the four green steering wheel lights mean DRS was open when it shouldn’t have been[/caption]
“He’s lost rear load and… phwoar… the green lights on the steering wheel indicate DRS open.
“He turned in flat out with his foot buried and the DRS did not shut, I think he’s turned in and not got the rear load.”
DRS is the car’s drag reduction system, a flap that opens on the rear wing on straights to alleviate downforce, allowing cars to go faster in a straight line.
The aid is not allowed on corners as it will dramatically destabilise cars, something Palmer theorises happened to Doohan.
Elsewhere in practice, McLaren led both sessions, with Lando Norris topping FP1 and Doohan’s countryman Oscar Piastri leading the pack in FP2.
