APRIL 25, 2003

Montoya unhurt in Silverstone shunt

Juan Pablo Montoya had a fairly big accident at Silverstone during testing when he lost control of the Williams-BMW at Becketts. The car had lost some of its speed thanks to a half-spin before the crash and the problem was not so much the force of the impact but rather the fact that the car buried itself in the tire barriers, trapping Montoya in the car for a few minutes before the marshals were able to pull him out. The design of the tire barriers is such that such things should not happen but much depends on the angle and the speed of the impact and these can vary considerably.