Ericsson walks away from huge high-speed shunt

The Sauber pitched left under braking into Turn 1 as something appeared to break on the rear, the driver a passenger, it slammed the barrier, flipped rolled and catapulted end to end before coming to a standstill in a crumpled wreck. It was a massive impact.

Replays appear to show a DRS failure triggered the shunt as Ericsson was steering the car straight when it veered left violently, forcing first turn marshals to seek cover from the debris.

The medical team arrived on the scene as Ericsson emerged from the steaming wreck unscathed and, after a check-up at the medical centre, he walked down the pitlane to cheers from the grandstand crowd and teams.

The car will need a rebuild as it was extensively damaged in the incident but crucially did enough to protect the driver from what might have been. The incident prompted a red flag stoppage allowing marshals to clear the debris and recover the Sauber.

Later teammate Charles Leclerc tested the DRS system, which failed, and at one point he reported before pitting, "It is staying open."

Clearly the team have a problem, probably a mechanical glitch on the DRS activation and deactivation, which will ensure their engineers and mechanics will be burning the midnight oil to resolve the game-breaking issue.

Last Sunday Formula 1 survived a scare when Nico Hulkenberg triggered a spectacular multiple car pile up on the first lap of the Belgian Grand Prix from which he, Fernando Alonso and Charles Leclerc were fortunate to walk away from their respective wrecks.