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Russian Grand Prix Abandoned After Scary Crash Sees Two Cars Engulf Into Flames

Russian Grand Prix Abandoned After Scary Crash Sees Two Cars Engulf Into Flames

F2 duo Luca Ghiotto and Jack Aitken​ were lucky to walk away from the incident without serious injury as they emerged from the wreckage.

Max Sherry

Max Sherry

The Russian Grand Prix has been abandoned after two F2 drivers were involved in a horrific crash which saw both of their cars burst into flames.

Luca Ghiotto and Jack Aitken were lucky to walk away from the incident without serious injury as they emerged from the fireball-like wreckage.

The event was subsequently called off as Sochi officials worked to clear the debris and extinguish the ongoing fires.

Formula 2

Just seven laps into the race, F2 duo Ghiotto and Aitkenwere battling for position as they turned a corner at hight speeds.

Aitken was just ahead of his rival when Ghiotto clipped the tail of his orange car while trying to overtake on the outside.

The contact forced both cars to swerve off track uncontrollably and go crashing into the guard rails at crazy speeds.

Thick smoke began pouring out of the cars as the two drivers somehow escaped without injury.

But as they were walking away from the scary incident, Ghiotto's car burst into flames with emergency and fire crews called in to take immediate action.

The red flag was pulled out and the race was ultimately abandoned.

Formula 2

Renault's Guanyu Zhou - who was leading the race at the time of the incident - was handed the victory in Sochi with Aitken and Ghiotto awarded fourth and fifth respectively.

But it appeared everyones post-race focus remained fixed on the health of those involved in the ugly crash.

Thankfully, Aitken was on hand to give F2 fans a positive update.

"So Luca and I were fighting at Turn 2, Came out and I was on the inside of Turn 3, started to pull ahead a little bit and he was still alongside me but behind," Aitken told Autosport in the aftermath of the event.

"I felt a really small touch on the rear and half a second after that I just couldn't hold the car to the inside anymore and it felt like the rear was losing pressure.

"Initially you have the touch you don't think anything about it. And then I felt the car start to bottom out on the ground then obviously lose steering.

"At that point I started to slow down the car, we can see in the data I brought the speed down a fair bit.

"[I was] slowing the car down enough for him to just get past me and when we touched it took the front-right tyre off the rim as well. So I wasn't slowing down at all when I was heading to the barrier and Luca was obviously up in the air. So we were in the same situation.

"It's just one of those when you are both trying to stay on the racing line as much as possible and just about unlucky that it was such a high speed part of the track and the touch caused a puncture."

Featured Image Credit: Formula 2

Topics: Motorsport news, Motorsport, Australia