- Japanese GP - Race
Sutil: Safety car should have been out
Adrian Sutil says the safety car should have been deployed at the very least following his initial crash at Dunlop after Jules Bianchi suffered a serious injury at the Japanese Grand Prix.
Sutil spun off the track in worsening rain at Turn 7 in worsening rain, but no safety car was deployed. The following lap as the racing continued with yellow flags waved at the corner, Bianchi had a similar spin but his car aquaplaned straight into the recovery vehicle - and was immediately taken to hospital in a state of unconsciousness.
Having spun off at a notoriously dangerous corner, Sutil does not know why there was not even a safety car deployed, let alone why it took so long to stop the race.
"With respect to this corner - everyone knows this is one of the trickiest, when it's getting late and the rain increases, if you have an accident there you should probably think about a safety car," Sutil said. "It's tricky conditions today and not easy to make the right decision absolutely at the right moment.
"At the beginning of the race we managed it quite well with the safety car. When we came in, the visibility was OK, the track was OK to drive, but it just got a little bit dark a bit early and maybe we should have stopped the race a bit earlier."
Sutil said Bianchi's crash was not too different to his own, but added that the outcome was much worse.
"The car came out to rescue my car and then it all happened. The yellow flags were out. I was just aquaplaning at that corner, it's a tricky one and as the rain got more and more the ability [to drive] got less and less and then one lap later, with waved yellow flags, Jules came round and had the same spin there and that was it. It was more or less the same crash but the outcome was a bit different."
Despite the prospect of heavy rain being forecast for a while, Sutil says the drivers were not asked about whether they were comfortable with the race going ahead at the scheduled time.
"Yes, for sure," Sutil said about whether the race could have been run in the morning. "I think they spoke about it. We weren't asked about our opinion. It was very clear it got more wet all the day through and it would have been quite easy to make the race earlier. But as I say, it's not in my hands."
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