- German GP - Race
'I was really concerned for the marshals' - Hamilton
Lewis Hamilton said he feared for the safety of the marshals at the German Grand Prix as they recovered Adrian Sutil's Sauber at the final corner in the closing stages of the race.
Sutil spun on the exit of the corner, leaving his Sauber stricken on the pit straight at the end of lap 49. Race control opted not to deploy a safety car, meaning marshals had to run across the track to get to the Sauber while cars continued to lap at racing speed.
"I was really concerned for the marshals, really concerned," Hamilton said. "You know, we come around that corner at serious speed, and then there's marshals standing not far from where you're driving past. For me, that's the closest it's been for a long, long time."
Hamilton said the situation reminded him of a video he had seen of Tom Pryce's fatal accident at the 1977 South African Grand Prix in which a marshal running across the track was also killed.
"When I used to work at a driving school in Bedford, and one day I came in and they had this video playing of a race from years and years ago. A car stopped on the track, and a marshal ran across the track and got hit by a car coming past. That was the first thing I thought about, and I couldn't believe they didn't bring out the Safety Car. I was worried about the marshals. Fortunately no one got hurt."
Ferrari's Fernando Alonso said safety cars had been deployed in less dangerous situations in the past.
"Being objective and honest, probably we were expecting a safety car in a normal situation," he said. "Sometimes they have put the safety car out for a piece of front wing on the track, and now it was a car there and it was not a safety car. It was a surprise, but if they didn't put it out it was because they felt it was not a risk and they removed the car in a safe manner. I hope, I didn't see it and that was it."
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
