Pierre Gasly was visibly shaken and emotional as he claimed he came within two metres of death in a scary moment at the Japanese Grand Prix.
It happened as the race was red flagged after just one lap, after Carlos Sainz aquaplaned and skidded off the road and into a barrier in very wet conditions. On his way back to the pits, Gasly was catching up to the rest of the pack behind the safety car when he came across the tractor at the side of the road.
Fortunately there was no collision, but he was lucky that was the case given visibility was extremely poor. It was a sobering reminder of the crash Jules Bianchi suffered in 2014, causing injuries from which he died nine months later.
Gasly, a childhood friend of Bianchi, was given an unwelcome reminder of that tragedy. After his initially angry response on team radio, he was clearly still shaken after the race as he spoke to Sky Sports.
"We lost Jules already – we all lost an amazing guy, an amazing driver for the reasons that we know," said the Frenchman. "Eight years ago on the same track in the same conditions. How? How today can we see a crane, not even in the gravel but on the race track, while we are still on the track... I don't understand that.
"Obviously I felt scared – if I had lost the car in a similar way as Carlos the lap before, it doesn't matter the speed, I would have just died. It's as simple as that. It's disrespectful to Jules and to his family. We are risking our lives out there and doing the best job in the world, but what we are asking is to keep us safe, it's already dangerous enough.
"I'm just extremely grateful that I'm here and tonight I can go home to all my family and my loved ones, and that the outcome is the way that it is. I passed two metres from that crane – if I had been two metres to the left, I would have been dead."
Gasly was later given a 20-second time penalty for speeding and two penalty points on his license, as the stewards pointed out there could still have been marshals on the track. Asked if he felt it was fair to place some of the blame on him, the Frenchman replied: "I was respecting my delta lap time, and I was nine seconds slower than the delta, so it is not fair [to blame him for speeding] because I was doing everything correctly.
"It should have not been there, I don't think tractors should be on the race track. They're probably going to say I'm wrong and say it's all my mistake, but what I care about is my colleagues, all of us, and that in the future we don't face this sort of situation. There would have been another one after Jules, and Jules was already extremely painful and I don't think it's respectful to his family.
"Thank god everything was fine today, but we came close to a dramatic outcome. What is most important for the future is that we are not put in these situations, it was not necessary. We could have waited one more minute and all got back in the pit lane and then put the tractors out there."
