Silverstone 2009: Sutil Stops Qualifying After Heavy Shunt

Adrian Sutil has crashed quite heavily at the Abbey complex at Silverstone, resulting in the session red-flagged. Sutil removed himself from the Force India car and walked away, seemingly fine. Praise due to the strength of cars, of course, but the stoppage effected Lewis Hamilton’s lap and both these drivers are now out of qualifying. Interestingly, Kazuki Nakajima is at the very top of the first session.

Adrian Sutil’s Force India wiggled as he entered the fast and sweeping corner that makes up the Abbey chicane. Sutil corrected the wiggle on the VJM02 but then it seemed to bottom slightly on the rear left – although that could have been the camber of the track – and ran wide over the grass. There was no locking of any brakes, indicating that Sutil either didn’t brake, or more likely that he suffered some kind of brake failure. Sutil skated over the gravel and impacted the barrier quite hard, but thankfully it wasn’t head-on and instead a side impact.

The G-meter light came on for Sutil’s accident – an device that measures the G-force and lights when the impact is substantial enough. This means Sutil has to pay the medical centre a visit, but so far he seems perfectly fine.

I had a brake problem and then had no brakes going into the complex. I pushed on the pedal but there wasn’t anything. I tried to avoid a big accident but it was impossible so I crashed really hard.

I’m completely okay, I was just taken to the medical centre for some checks as it was a big crash. Adrian Sutil.

Fortunately Adrian is okay, and we take any potential car problem that could cause an accident like that very seriously. We will fully understand what happened and ensure that it is addressed. Dominic Harlow, Chief Race Engineer.

Sutil had been driving superbly well all weekend, and managed to haul his Mercedes-powered Force India to P3 in the afternoon free practice session. The improvements made to the car are clearly helping, and Sutil looked to be in the zone until this accident. Unfortunately, both Force Indias are now out of qualifying, along with the two Scuderia Toro Rossos and Lewis Hamilton.