Martin Brundle has heavily criticisedan incident in last weekend's Japanese Grand Prix in which Pierre Gasly encountereda recovery vehicle on track. With the Safety Car having beendeployed following Carlos Sainz's crash on Lap 1 at Suzuka, Gasly had fallen tothe back after a pit stop to repair damage, and was driving more quickly thanthe field in order to catch up with the train of cars. Onboard footage of Gasly's carshowed the AlphaTauri driving past the recovery vehicle at high speed as heexited the hairpin. When the race was red-flagged onelap later and all the drivers had returned to the pits, Gasly was visiblydistressed at having encountered the vehicle, and following the conclusion ofthe race, spoke of how he was reminded of a tragic incident at Suzuka in 2014. At that year's Japanese Grand Prix,also run in heavy rain, Gasly's fellow Frenchman Jules Bianchi lost control ofhis car and struck a recovery vehicle, sustaining critical head injuries whichwould ultimately claim his life. Brundle also had his own near-misswith a recovery vehicle at Suzuka in an equally wet race in 1994, instead strikinga marshal as his McLaren aquaplaned off track, and the Briton said the Gasly incidenthad brought back bad memories of that event.
Brundle relives 1994 Suzuka incident
"I was horrified because I hadan incident there in Suzuka in 1994 when I'd been crying on the radio for therace to be red flagged because the conditions were horrific," Brundle told Any Driven Monday . "I aquaplaned off in a place where I couldn't see, even my dashboard, Iwent off and just missed one of the Caterpillar diggers but unfortunately hit amarshal and ran back to help him. The bone of his leg was sticking out of hisoveralls and it was a horrible mess. "After that experience, I remember saying in '98 [oncommentary], 'we can't have vehicles on track when race cars are on track'. Youcan aquaplane off, you can have a car issue, whatever. "It should never happen. Of course, we did have the awfulincident again in 2014 when we effectively lost Jules Bianchi. "You just can't have it."
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