Cem Bolukbasi, one of two drivers who crashed during Formula 2’s first practice session in Jeddah, has been taken to a local hospital for precautionary checks.
The Charouz driver, in his first F2 campaign, caught a snap on the entry through turn 10. He spun around heading backwards into the barriers at turn 11 and then being dragged along it by momentum.The red flag was shown to neutralise the session. However it took over three minutes for marshals and the medical car to be able to attend Bolukbasi. He was able to exit the car under his own power, when the medical car arrived and was initially taken to the on-site medical centre.
In a statement, the FIA confirmed Bolukbasi had subsequently been taken to a local hospital for further checks. “The FIA advises that an incident occurred during the FIA Formula 2 Practice Session today, 25/03/22, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, involving car number 23, Cem Bolukbasi.
“The driver has been transferred to King Fahad Armed Forces Hospital, Jeddah for precautionary checks.”
“I’m okay,” Bolukbasi posted on social media. However his participation in the afternoon qualifying session remains in doubt.
Theo Pourchaire also suffered a violent crash during the practice session, losing control of his car through turns 22 and 23 and crashing into the barrier on the outside of turn 24. The ART driver immediately exited his car and then asked marshals for a fire extinguisher to deal with overheating at the back of his heavily damaged car.
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Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
25th March 2022, 15:39
Poor. OK, the medical car has to drive there (I would expect an under 3 min lap time!), but marshals are all around the track. Under red flag conditions, they should be able to go directly to the car (so long as they are not dangerously crossing the track).
Red Andy (@red-andy)
25th March 2022, 17:32
@eurobrun I don’t know what the situation is with marshals, whether they have brought volunteers in from Europe or whether they are all locals. But the marshaling for the Diriyah ePrix was extremely poor as well, resulting in farcical and borderline dangerous scenes during one of the races when the Safety Car was trying to lead the cars past a JCB doing a three-point turn in the middle of the track. Taken together the incidents suggest this country is not prepared for top-level motorsport.
Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
25th March 2022, 18:32
@red-andy yeah, I remember how bad that was, but until you just said it, I hadn’t but 2 + 2 together that we’re in the same country!
StefMeister (@stefmeister)
25th March 2022, 15:47
I said in another article earlier that it really stood out to me how long it took anyone to get to him with track workers behind the barrier not showing any real urgency to go check on him despite the fact he was staying in the car & didn’t seem to be moving too much.
Reminded me of when Ralf Schumacher crashed through the banking at Indy during the race in 2004 where there was a lot of criticism about how long it was before anyone got to him when it was clear he wasn’t OK.
Qeki (@qeki)
25th March 2022, 19:53
@stefmeister I think this will continue to happen in here if there won’t be any serious injuries.
DaveW (@dmw)
25th March 2022, 16:01
Pourchaire will be having nightmares about this track the rest of his life. Glad both of them are OK.
Red Andy (@red-andy)
25th March 2022, 17:29
A normal and excellent circuit.
Qeki (@qeki)
25th March 2022, 19:54
Circuit fast, marshals slow
Tommy C (@tommy-c)
26th March 2022, 0:39
Getting some serious Imola ’94 vibes about this race. I think i said the same last year…