Worth mentioning...
The scary accident Raikkonen suffered at Hockenheim allowed Michel Schumacher to easily win his home Grand Prix. Luckily for Raikkonen he walked unhurt from the wrecked McLaren. Having a rear wing failure is perhaps one of the most serious causes that the accident will be of consequence...
Last year we saw Ralph Firman destroy a Jordan and hit a tire wall quite hard when his rear wing simply took off on its own leaving Ralph without possibility of controlling his car.
Kimi's accident happened on the 15th lap, at full blast and in hot pursuit of Michael as he was sitting in 2nd place, but close and gaining on Michael...
He was approaching the Nord Kurve at about the braking point, just before braking; Kimi could have been doing in the vicinity of 270 kph (about 168 mph) in sixth gear... in short, very fast. Braking into the corner slowed him a bit. -but not much that corner is taken at about 200 kph (125 mph)....
The rear wing simply took off on its own and left Kimi as a passenger in the McLaren, he went straight into the tire wall, luckily a spin through the kitty litter (sand trap) slowed him down some, but he still hit the wall hard...
It is somehow ironic that Bruce McLaren (The original creator of Kimi's car), was killed on June 2, 1970 in a testing accident at Goodwood, where the rear wing failed at about 180 mph in a Group 7 car (McLaren M8D, successor of the 1969 successful M8B)... the car, after losing its wing, went up in the air and hit an embankment, killing Bruce.
f1.tottoro.hu
However... having said all that... the form that Kimi and McLaren showed prior to the wing failure, clearly showed that McLaren may have resolved its problems and they may be competitive again, creating a superb challenge (finally) to Ferrari's dominance.
Strange things occurred with the Renault team in which both drivers, Fernando and Jarno at some point or another lost competitiveness, then as mysteriously as it appeared... the condition (suspension/tires... whatever)... disappeared...
Fernando was looking good for a 2nd place, until the closing laps in which he lost the position to Jenson Button... yet still securing third spot. |
