Jack Doohan rushed to F1 medical centre after huge 185mph crash in Japan GP practice
The Alpine driver lost control of the car in the high-speed turn one section of Suzuka in practice
Jack Doohan escaped unharmed after a massive 185mph crash in practice at the Japanese Grand Prix on Friday.
The Australian driver, in just his fourth F1 race weekend, was driving full-throttle down the main straight towards the sweeping right-handed turn 1 corner.
Yet Doohan’s Alpine car bottomed out, with the DRS rear wing still open, and the car spun violently into the tyre barrier.
The 22-year-old looked shaken as he was helped out of the cockpit and was assessed at the FIA medical centre at Suzuka, though Alpine did reveal that he had not suffered a concussion.
Doohan said afterwards: “First of all, I am OK after the incident. It was a heavy one, something that caught me by surprise, and I will learn from it.
“I know the team has a lot of work ahead to repair the car going into tomorrow, so thanks in advance to them for their efforts. My focus is on tomorrow, where we will have free practice 3 to get ready for qualifying.”
As Doohan acknowledged, the Alpine mechanics will have a massive job on overnight to repair the car for qualifying on Saturday, with a smashed-up chassis and suspension to fix.
Doohan’s crash triggered a red flag – one of four stoppages in a bizarre FP2 session, which included two session suspensions due to fires on the side of the track – and resulted in a 22-minute delay.
Notably, Doohan did not take part in the earlier session on Friday – with Japanese driver and Alpine reserve Ryo Hirakawa in his car for a one-hour practice outing.
Doohan, the son of five-time motorcycle world champion Mick Doohan, is already facing immense pressure at the start of his rookie campaign, as a result of Argentine driver Franco Colapinto arriving from Williams as a reserve.
The Australian crashed out on the opening lap of the season-opener in Melbourne and finished outside the points and received a penalty at the Chinese GP a fortnight ago.
Elsewhere on Friday, McLaren set the early pace with Lando Norris quickest in first practice and Oscar Piastri fastest in the disrupted second practice.
Norris leads the world championship by eight points heading into this weekend.
Yuki Tsunoda, on debut for Red Bull, gave a solid opening account of himself, finishing sixth-fastest in first practice – just a tenth of a second off teammate Max Verstappen.
Lewis Hamilton was fourth-fastest for Ferrari in FP1, with Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc in third and Mercedes’s George Russell in second.
Qualifying is at 7am (BST) on Saturday morning, with the race at 6am on Sunday.
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