Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen crash (F1)
Ahead of this weekend’s Austrian GP, let us take a look at the horrific crashes that occurred at this Grand Prix in the past
The Austrian Grand Prix has witnessed numerous crashes in its history – here are the top 5 crash incidents at the picturesque Red Bull Ring circuit.
In the 2016 Austrian Grand Prix, Mercedes were looking to comfortably secure a 1-2 finish but a final lap mess-up caused Rosberg to drop down to the fourth place. On the last lap of the race, Hamilton tried to overtake Rosberg at Turn 2 from the outside but collided and damaged the front wing of Rosberg’s car.
In the 1999 Austrian Grand Prix, Mika Hakkinen crashed into his teammate David Coulthard. On the opening lap itself, Hakkinen hit the rear of Coulthard’s McLaren and saw him spin on the track while ending up on the gravel.
In the 2002 Austrian Grand Prix, Takuma Sato escaped a horror crash with just bruises in his Jordan. Nick Heidfeld lost control of his Sauber while making contact with McLaren’s David Coulthard and went off the track while Sato was approaching the turn and later was hit side-on by Heidfeld.
In the 1997 edition, Alesi tried to overtake Irvine from the inside on Turn 3 but both the drivers somewhat collided. It was Irvine who spun on the track but Alesi hit the front of the Ferrari and jumped over as he lost the front right tyre while hitting the track. Both the drivers were forced to retire from the race.
In the 2015 Austrian Grand Prix, Kimi Raikkonen lost control of his Ferrari and snapped sideways as he took out Fernando Alonso with him, forcing the McLaren driver to end up on top of his Ferrari. It was Raikkonen’s Ferrari that picked up sudden wheelspin in fifth gear and just went to the left.
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