Bianchi to miss second practice after crash

2013 Japanese Grand Prix

Posted on

| Written by

Jules Bianchi will not take part in second practice following his crash in the first session.

Marussia confirmed the damage to his car cannot be repaired in time for second practice.

Bianchi, who is driving for the first time at Suzuka, crashed at Degner 2 on his ninth lap of the first practice session.

He was unable to correct the car after a slide when his arm became stuck between the side of the cockpit and the steering wheel. He damaged the front-left corner of the MR02 during the crash.

“As a consequence of Jules Bianchi’s accident in this morning’s free practice one session, his allocated chassis MR02-02 has sustained damage that is repairable but not in sufficient time for him to take part in free practice two,” said the team in a statement.

“Jules will therefore sit out this afternoon’s session. The spare chassis will be built up in time for Jules to resume running in free practice three on Saturday morning.”

2013 Japanese Grand Prix

Browse all 2013 Japanese Grand Prix articles

Image © Marussia

Author information

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...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

9 comments on “Bianchi to miss second practice after crash”

  1. So sorry for Jules this track punishes mistakes severely. I hope he gets a good Practice tomorrow.

  2. Jules Verne.

    20,000 races under the belt.

  3. Well, at least he doesn’t have to put any effort into qualification, so he can do his FP3 focussed on the race pace

    1. Why would he not try in qualifying?

      1. @scottie
        He has a grid penalty if i remember correctly. So he would be starting dead last anyway.

        1. I had forgotten that @mads , sorry, and thanks!

  4. I don’t really understand how the arm could get stuck between steering wheel and side of the cockpit?

    1. @mike-dee Neither do I. But in my opinion if there isn’t enough space in the cockpit it may be a safety issue and it shouldn’t be underestimated.
      According to GrandPrix247 Jules said his elbow got stuck

      My chassis is damaged too much which is why we’re not running. It’s a shame, but these things happen in racing. My elbow got stuck between the chassis and the seat so when I had the oversteer moment, I could not turn right any more. I am OK now, I had some pain in the elbow, but now I’m fine.

      It’s quite strange.

    2. @mike-dee I was confused by that also. Perhaps he was making a brake bias adjustment at the time also, so maybe the correction was not possible one-handed? That’s purely a theory I’ve just invented!

Comments are closed.