Video: Heikki Kovalainen unhurt in major crash in Spanish Grand Prix

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Heikki Kovalainen was involved in a a heavy impact on lap 23 of the Spanish Grand Prix.

Kovalainen waved and gave a thumbs-up to the crowd after being taken from the scene on a stretcher.

Update: according to the medical centre at the circuit Kovalainen is in a stable condition and has been taken to hospital for checks.

Update: according to the BBC Kovalainen’s crash was measured at 140mph and he suffered concussion.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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25 comments on “Video: Heikki Kovalainen unhurt in major crash in Spanish Grand Prix”

  1. It was a very nasty collision with the barrier.
    Reminiscent of Burti at Spa in 2001.

  2. as pointed out by James Allen, you can see through the monoquocke, where his legs would be.

    Hopefully he’s alright.

  3. And reminiscent of Schumacher’s accident at Stowe, Silverstone. Pleased to hear he’s okay though.

  4. found one movie on the crasch, these tend to dissapear quick though;http://f1bloggen.se/2008/04/27/heikki-kovalainen-i-krasch-i-spanien/

  5. His left leg looked injured. That was a scary wreck….

  6. TommyBellingham
    27th April 2008, 15:18

    That was scary, I didnt like the way they weren’t showing him getting out the car or anything. Then I knew it was bad

  7. That crash came completely out of the blue. I suspect the cause of it was the wheel fairing coming off and cutting the tyre (the on-board shot indicates this is likely). But when it takes as long as it did for a shot of the driver to be seen, it’s never good news. At least it is almost certainly just concussion (and Heikki will probably feel a bit sore in the morning) and that he’ll most likely be back in the McLaren next race.

  8. Dan – I thought his left ankle was lolling while he was on the stretcher as if it had been dislocated/broken, but I guess I was just imagining it.

  9. Maybe it got a bit sprained, then (the ITV commentators said that nothing was broken, but it was a sizeable impact nonetheless).

  10. The doctors told me Heikki has a lot of pain in his arm and he may have torn ankle ligaments. I wasn’t able to talk to him because he was sedated due to his concussion, but the team doctor is confident he will be driving in Turkey.

  11. Callum Thomson
    27th April 2008, 17:45

    Yeah, i thought his left ankle looked a bit wobbly too but maybe they would have supported it if he was complaining. The wheel deflation looked very similar to lewis’s accident last year. Johanna, who are you? Are you in the team?

  12. William Wilgus
    27th April 2008, 18:10

    It’s apparent from the video that the left front tire ran over something on the track, then blew out about a second later.  Watch the video and you can see the left front wheel rise momentarily, then blow a second or so later.

  13. William Wilgus
    27th April 2008, 18:13

    I just looked at the video again, and I may be wrong about running over something, but the left front did rise & fall.

  14. According to McLaren it was due to a failure within the hub, possibly caused by a stone getting into it and causing it to break.

  15. Kiitos Johanna! Looks like someone from his team is posting here, if she is real, that is.

  16. Johanna – you do seem to have a little bit of inside info there – but glad that he is allright there wasnt much he could do to stop it from what was shown

  17. Callum Thomson
    27th April 2008, 21:38

    I don’t see the tyre/suspension going up before it deflates…looks like normal suspension movement to me.

  18. theRoswellite
    27th April 2008, 23:51

     A tip of the Hans device to all the engineers, regulatory personnel, and anyone else who has contributed to the great advances in driver safety over the last decade.  You should certainly feel good about your efforts again today.

    It will be great to see Heikki’s impish grin and always positive take on things back in the pits again soon.

    PS:  And Sir Jackie……again, job well done.

  19. Great to hear that Heikki is OK, although he dose appear to be a bit banged up after a very nasty crash. Hopefuly he will be up and running again soon :)

  20. There was a bit of a worry about being able to see through the bottom of the car. I wondered if this might be connected to the removable tub that they were talking about? I.E. The tub might have been removed to help with getting Heikki out and therefore we could see through the car?

    Obviously this is speculation but thought there might be something in it.

  21. He did very well when he picked up the hands from the wheel

  22. i didnt see the crash till monday but i heard that he broke his akle my m8 said he be out rest of season

  23. he went 140-150 mph into that wall

  24. Hi Dobby – Kovalainen didn’t break anything thankfully and his chances of being at the Turkish Grand Prix look good.

    There was a driver who broke his ankle in a crash last weekend – Stephane Ortelli in the LMS race at Monza who was extremely lucky because it was a massive crash as you can see in this video.

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