F1, Japanese Grand Prix: Five Talking Points

#4 Collisions, penalties, retirements and safety cars

F1 Grand Prix of Japan

The race turned out to be a busy one for stewards. The initial stages of the Grand Prix had blink and you’ll miss moments between multiple drivers. Kevin Magnussen had an incident with Charles Leclerc on lap four and a subsequent puncture on the Haas car was the reason for a safety car to be deployed. Kevin limped his car to the pits but later retired on lap 20.

Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll had moments of their own and were both handed five-second penalties. Another driver who was asked to serve a five second time penalty was Max Verstappen due to running off track and rejoining unsafely, which resulted in Kimi Räikkönen being pushed off track. A collision also took place between Sauber teammates, Leclerc and Marcus Ericsson as the latter touched the back of the former’s car.

A virtual safety car was deployed later due to Charles Leclerc retiring his car after he felt ‘something broke’ and a trip to the gravel. Nico Hülkenberg, too, had to retire after an issue was spotted on the rear end of his car.