Miscommunication to blame for track marshal's scary moment in F1 race
A track marshal had to run for his life when Sunday's Singapore GP was restarted after a Safety Car period while he was still on the track at Turn One.
The Safety Car was dispatched after Nico Hulkenberg crashed off the start line. However, to the surprise of most observers, it stayed out for only two laps before the field was released. The marshal was still in the process of removing debris, and he only just made to the side of the track when the field arrived.
"It was not a nice experience to see someone running across when I'm arriving at 300[km/h]," said race leader Nico Rosberg.
"So I made sure I drove through safely, and that's it. It was a bit of a hairy moment, because I didn't think he saw us coming. For sure I lost some time, definitely."
"Last year's guy was drunk at least!" said Mercedes boss Toto Wolff, reflecting on the fan that walked on the track during the 2015 Singapore GP. "I don't think this guy had such a good time out there. It was very dangerous but I think we must give credit to race control because they restarted the race pretty quickly and this is what we have asked them - not to spend endless time behind the safety car.
"That probably triggered one of the marshals being out there, cleaning up the mess, and these things happen and I am really happy that it ended up with no one being hurt."
The FIA said there had been a miscommunication by local officials and race control had been told that the track was clear.
