Jack Doohan was at a loss to explain his huge crash in the second practice session for the Japanese Grand Prix.
The Alpine driver spun into a barrier at turn one on his fifth lap of the session. Replays from the crash indicated his DRS may not have closed as he turned into the corner. As the corner is taken at such high speeds, drivers may not brake as they turn into it, and therefore have to deactivate DRS manually.
Doohan was able to climb out of his car afterwards. He was bemused by the crash and asked his race engineer “did something happen?” as soon as his car came to a rest.
Doohan asked his race engineer twice more for an explanation while reassuring him he was unhurt. “We’ll just come back to you, mate,” Doohan was told. “We’re just looking at everything on our side here.”
The crash leaves Doohan very short of mileage after the first day of running at Suzuka. He did not participate in the first practice session as Alpine chose to run Ryo Hirakawa in his car.
His car was heavily damaged in the crash, which caused the session to be stopped for over 20 minutes so the barriers he hit could be repaired. Cars typically approach Suzuka’s turn one at around 265kph.
This article will be updated
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2025 Japanese Grand Prix
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