Azerbaijan marshals have confirmed the drain cover involved in Friday’s FP1 incident will miss the afternoon FP2 session.
“The drain cover require a chassis change due to the damage caused” F1 officials said in a statement. “Therefore due to regulations he will not be able to run until FP3 tomorrow.”
The damage was caused as a loose Williams drove over the drain cover.
“It’s really disappointing” the drain cover told reporters, “I WANTED TO GET OUT THERE AND HIT THE TARMAC, AND THEN STAY THERE”
It’s unclear if the drain cover will be fixed in time for Saturday’s FP3 and crucial Qualifying session.
“OUR TEAM WILL be working through the night” an Azerbaijani plumber told us.
“We don’t have that many spare drain cover parts”
“Sure we’re feeling a little exposed at the moment – particularly the massive drain hole without a cover on the main straight” the plumber told us.
“We told all the drain covers before the session to steer clear of the Williams, but accidents happen and you just have to deal with them”
However it isn’t all doom and gloom for the plumbers of Baku.
“We still have 716 drains in the race, so we’ll put this behind us and focus on those for Sunday”
More to come.
