Azerbaijan GP: Drain cover ruins Russell's weekend


By Andrew Hooper
April 26 2019

The opening Friday practice session for the 2019 Azerbaijan GP would see the Williams team suffer the misfortune of seeing one of their cars, that of George Russell, suffer major damage after it had driven over the top of a drain cover that had been lifted by another car. This would see the drain cover strike the underside of the FW42 damaging the floor, the chassis and other components including the diffuser. The team would annouce with the chassis having to be replaced the earliest that George would be able to run would be the Saturday practice. As for Robert Kubica he was not able to get out to set a time before the session was cancelled as a result of the drain issue.

 
 ROKiT Williams Azerbaijan GP Friday 1st Practice
 
Russell
 

Team Summary:
Both Williams drivers would complete single installation laps in the opening Friday practice session. Leclerc would set the first time with a 1m:49.134. Vettel would move into second while Leclerc would set a 1m:48.343 but this was way of the pace.

The session would be red flagged as a result of a drain cover coming lose and when George Russell went over it the cover came out and struck the underside of the Williams car ending up damaging the floor and rear diffuser. There were also concerns over the chassis as the car was brought back to the Williams pit. The engine would shutdown seeing George leave his car looking underneath to assess the damage.

On top of that the fork lift on the recovery vehicle would leak oil all over the Williams car as a result of the impact of the fork lift with a bridge. It would be announced that the session would not be restarted as the drains were checked. Television replays suggested that Leclerc's car had lifted the drain cover that was then struck by George.

Robert Kubica:
Robert would be first out for Williams running on the hard tyre for his installation lap. He would not return to the track with the red flag and the cancellation of the session.

George Russell:
George would follow Robert out but was on the soft tyre. After a short break George would return running on the soft tyre. But he would stop out on the track with a failure of the diffuser. The session would be red flagged. Replays showed that a drain cover was sucked up and when George went over it it hit the bottom of the car and destroyed the rear diffuser.

When interviewed George would say" "Going down the straight on my normal line ... big bang and the engine turned off ... ruined the floor ... worried for the chassis now ... completely ruined our session ... not what we need at this stage."
 
Russell's damaged floor
 
Pos Driver Car Time Gap Laps
1 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1m47.497 - 4
2 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1m49.598 2.1s 3
 
Kubica
 

Azerbaijan GP: Drain cover ruins Russell's weekend
Posted by: Williams F1 (IP Logged)
Date: 26/04/2019 11:40

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