Kovalainen's Fire

[harshadvj]

What Kovalainen was thinking is beyond me. With a car on fire, I cannot understand why he did not turn into the pit lane. The Singapore pit lane seemed to have a nice area at entrance which was far from all garages and people, where the marshals could have put out the fire. But instead of that, he skipped the pit lane entry, parked the car on start finish straight, created a yellow flag situation and became a fire fighter.

Did he do this for safety reasons or sheer ignorance that his car was on fire?

[Hermann]

He said that he didn't want anyone in the pitlane to get into danger, at least thats what i heard when watching the replay.

[mad_ani]

Of course sftey reason, What if more people had been hurt if the engine exploded with the remaining fuel. Atleast he was brave and sensible enough to grab a fire extinguisher to put out the flames before the marshals even came.


Similar to Brazil 2010, with the fuel line attached on his Mclaren, Brawn GP guys did the right thing pulling out the fuel hose. :)

More about common sense and safety rather than penalty

[Grillo]

There was an exit at the end of the pit lane entrance but there's usually people there. It wasn't an easy situation, he had to decide in fractions of a second.

I agree with mad_ani.

[harshadvj]

If its for safety reasons alone, then its very much fine. Damn good job with the fire extinguisher though

[mad_ani]

Usually the drivers are trained in younger formula to use them and this is where the 5 second 'get out of the car' test comes useful

[impactX]

Good on him to not put others' lives in jeopardy and he stayed calm during the whole thing! Was thinking the car would blow up any minute...

[vcs316]

Kovalainen: Track was safest option

Heikki Kovalainen says he drove down the start-finish straight, rather than head into the pitlane, with his on-fire Lotus because he thought that was the safest thing to do.

The Lotus driver caused a stir in the closing stages of the race when his T127 was engulfed in flames thanks to fuel-system damage caused by a collision with Sebastien Buemi's Scuderia Toro Rosso.

As the flames took hold of his car, Kovalainen elected not to drive into the pits - and instead he coasted down the start-finish straight before coming to a halt in front of the Williams pits.

Speaking about the incident afterwards, Kovalainen told AUTOSPORT: "I think it looked more spectacular than it really was.

"When you get some fluids on the hot exhaust it is always going to catch a big flame, and I was just trying to find a marshal with some extinguisher. I eventually chose to stop in front of the Williams boys and they gave me some extinguishers."

When asked why he did not go down the pits, Kovalainen said: "I thought about it, but then I thought it was too big a fire and it was not safe enough to go in the middle of the people, and at the end of the race there might be people celebrating there.

"So I thought it was better to stop on the main straight. I didn't realise it was that big a fire until I was in the pit-lane entry, so I had to think about it.

"Then I thought about crossing to the right hand side of the track but I thought it was too high speed a corner to cross the track with such flames. So then I just tried to crawl it around the corner. That is what I was looking for – finding marshals.

"The engine was dead. It was game over by then."

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/87027

[Hornet]

Better yellow flag than risk setting the pit lane on fire, lol.
You can't expect him to park his burning car in the middle of the pit lane entrance either, what if someone needs to pit?

And what good will it do anyway. It was the failure of the marshals to get to the car quickly, or perhaps they did not have enough marshals which is even worst. This GP marshal is the worst I've seen this year. They take ages to respond to accidents.

[DonXabi]

Sensible choice, good job by Heikki..........

[m schumy]

I really liked the way he kept his cool

[aroutis]

Heiki did the sensible thing. Going to the pits with a car on fire was by no means the right thing to do.

Isolation to the track, use a fire extinguisher is the right choice and is what he did.

Good for the Finn and btw I admire the way he reacted.

[sav_pap]

I think entering the pits was to dangerous (in case of explosion) so what he did was right for me.

[Katu]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAYAEnceWjc
very sensible and brave thing to do

[Greig]

At the time I thought what a idiot, now I realise why I am not quick enough at thinking to be a F1 driver

Actually I was just hoping they put the SC car out so I could relax a little

[Katu]

i was hoping for sc too

[Tifosi]

worried me a bit when he was actually standing on the track though!

[Brakefade]

This is still motorsport. Just because people aren't getting killed left and right anymore (thankfully), doesn't mean it's 100% safe, or that you should expect it to be 100% safe.

[Ant Raikkonen]

Yeah it was a good fire wasn't it. Haven't really seen one like that since the BAR-Honda V12 days
I also feel he did the correct, less risky thing (for teams) by parking it where he did, then getting an extinguisher from Williams
I also wanted a SC to decrease my heart rate.

[Jacquesvw]

I think heiki did the right thing and I was also hoping for a SC because then the race would have been won without vettel putting pressure on alonso.

[zakfourie]

I really liked the way he kept his cool

Me too!

[gvsnraju85]

Of course sftey reason, What if more people had been hurt if the engine exploded with the remaining fuel. Atleast he was brave and sensible enough to grab a fire extinguisher to put out the flames before the marshals even came.


Similar to Brazil 2010, with the fuel line attached on his Mclaren, Brawn GP guys did the right thing pulling out the fuel hose. :)

More about common sense and safety rather than penalty

Brazil 2010?????? I wonder when that took place........sure u do not have a time machine wid you??

[harshadvj]

He was so cool coz he's from Finland. "Safety first" rules!!

[Tifoso]

Great, great courage, IMO

[mad_ani]

Brazil 2010?????? I wonder when that took place........sure u do not have a time machine wid you??

my bad, it was Brazil 2009, with the Mclarens

[KurtC]

was a nice move, he thought in the best way, going into pit was risky, it doesnt matter if there's plenty of space... no one knows what can happen with the fire... how he stayed calm goin out of the car and taking out the fire was a good example, well done Heikki, also how he and Shumacher make room for Alonso and Vettel when they were outlaped was a really good

[Agron]

worried me a bit when he was actually standing on the track though!

Indeed, it was not the fire, they have a lot of protection against that and besides it was small as in easy to extinguish, the problem were those cars 5 m away driving at 250km/h or so while he was walking around the track as if buying groceries . Two cars could be driving side by side trying an overtake or something and if they touched while he was there, calmly putting down the fire, well...

[vagos]

At the time I thought what a idiot, now I realise why I am not quick enough at thinking to be a F1 driver

Actually I was just hoping they put the SC car out so I could relax a little

that is wxactly what i thought!!! but i must say good job by heikki!