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Colapinto sustains 50G in Vegas qualifying crash
Franco Colapinto’s crash in qualifying for the Las Vegas Grand Prix registered at over 50G, with his participation in Saturday’s race in doubt.
The Argentine was on his final flying lap of Q2 and trying to reach the top-10 shootout when he clipped the wall on the inside of Turn 16, sending his Williams across the track and into the outside concrete barrier at high speed. The huge impact moved the wall back significantly, while Colapinto’s car suffered major damage.
Williams has now confirmed that the 21-year-old will have to be assessed on Saturday to see if he is fit to race, while it will also be analyzing the car’s status following a number of heavy crashes in Brazil.
“During qualifying Franco sustained a significant impact of over 50G, requiring a medical check-up,” Williams said in a statement. “An impact of this magnitude is obviously significant and severe and he will need to be evaluated again tomorrow before we will know whether he is clear to race.
“Franco’s health is all that matters and we are glad he is otherwise okay. We will provide further updates when we can.”
Colapinto climbed out of the car under his own power following the crash, that delayed qualifying by a little over 20 minutes while barrier repairs took place and the debris was cleared.
Chris Medland
While studying Sports Journalism at the University of Central Lancashire, Chris managed to talk his way into working at the British Grand Prix in 2008 and was retained for three years before joining ESPN F1 as Assistant Editor. After three further years at ESPN, a spell as F1 Editor at Crash Media Group was followed by the major task of launching F1i.com’s English-language website and running it as Editor. Present at every race since the start of 2014, he has continued building his freelance portfolio, working with international titles. As well as writing for RACER, his broadcast work includes television appearances on F1 TV and as a presenter and reporter on North America's live radio coverage on SiriusXM.
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