Marcus Ericsson walked away relatively unscathed after losing control at 220mph during practice for the Italian Grand Prix on Friday.
Ericsson’s Sauber hit a wall and rolled three times after it appeared his DRS failed to close under braking. The car came to a standstill the right way up and Ericsson was helped out of his car by marshals and taken to Monza’s medical centre.
“I don’t know what happened,” Ericsson said over the radio. “I am OK.” He returned to the garage giving a thumbs up but was clearly limping and rubbing his neck.
Ericsson's accident came five days after his teammate, Charles Leclerc, emerged unscathed from a terrifying first-corner accident in Belgium. He paid tribute to the halo, Formula One's new safety device, after it deflected Fernando Alonso's airborne McLaren away from his head.
Ericsson’s crash happened in the opening moments of second practice session, which was subsequently delayed for 20 minutes.
Earlier in the day, practice opened in heavy rain. Sergio Pérez was quickest in a wet-dry first session of limited running with Lewis Hamilton in 11th and Sebastian Vettel in 17th.
When more representative dry running in the afternoon resumed, Vettel topped the timesheets despite an off at Parabolica with Hamilton in third, 0.287sec down, behind Kimi Räikkönen. – Guardian service
