A sizeable accident for Lucas di Grassi has brought Virgin Racing's day of testing at Barcelona to an abrupt and premature end on Thursday. The Brazilian driver lost control of his car at Campsa corner before heading into the tyre barriers backwards. The team now awaits a parts delivery before rejoining the action tomorrow.
With testing at the Circuit de Catalunya having begun as usual at 9am local time, two red flags were deployed in the morning due to stoppages for the Lotus of Fairuz Fauzy and Ferrari of Fernando Alonso at 9:20 and 10:20 respectively, both on the run to La Caixa corner behind the paddock.
The third stoppage came for newcomer di Grassi just after 12:35, when the Cosworth-powered VR-01 crashed in the same place as Heikki Kovalainen's McLaren in the Spanish Grand Prix two years ago - the cause of the incident is yet to be revealed.
With the car having been transported back to the garage on a flatbed lorry and with di Grassi uninjured, the team formerly known as Manor GP must now wait for a delivery of components to the track; the full extent of damage to the car's rear end is so far unknown as the back half of the vehicle was covered with tarpaulin upon its return to the pits.
'Today I had a spin at corner 9, compromising some mileage,' di Grassi wrote on his personal Twitter feed. 'The causes still being investigated. I am fine. Next time I will go even faster, always pushing more and more.'
Series
Formula 1
Personalities
Lucas Di Grassi
Teams
Marussia
Other
Get your official Formula 1 tickets at Sportstadium.com
| Lucas Di Grassi | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 |  |  |  |
| More Lucas Di Grassi photos | |||
English
Nederlands
Español
Italiano
