OCTOBER 12, 2002

McNish unhurt

Allan McNish, in his last race with the Toyota F1 team, was fortunate to emerge unscathed from a high-speed accident in qualifying at Suzuka. The Toyota went out of control at the fast rigth-hander going out into the country and at around 160mph bounced across the short run-off area and hit the barriers hard, halfway up.

Allan McNish, in his last race with the Toyota F1 team, was fortunate to emerge unscathed from a high-speed accident in qualifying at Suzuka. The Toyota went out of control at the fast rigth-hander going out into the country and at around 160mph bounced across the short run-off area and hit the barriers hard, halfway up.

The worrying thing was that the car broke the top two rails of the steel barriers. This may have been a good thing because the car then hit the earth bank behind at rather lower velocity, the speed having been taken out of the impact in the detsruction of the barrier. If it had held the Toyota might have flipped and that could have been a much worse accident for McNish.

The Scottish driver was able to clamber from the wreck of the Toyota unaided but was clearly shaken by the force of the impact and went off to the medical centre for checks. The session will not be restarted for at least 45 minutes because of the extent of the damage done in the crash.