Franco Colapinto participation in jeopardy after 50G Las Vegas GP quali crash

Franco Colapinto isn't a certainty to race in Las Vegas, following a heavy crash in qualifying.
Franco Colapinto has escaped serious injury in a frightening crash in qualifying for the Las Vegas Grand Prix, but isn’t certain to race.
The Williams driver was involved in a heavy crash at the end of Q2 in qualifying for the Las Vegas GP.
Franco Colapinto crashes heavily in Las Vegas
Colapinto was attempting to escape the elimination zone at the end of Q2 and was approaching the end of his final flying lap when he turned in slightly too early for the high-speed Turn 15.
Realising his error, Colapinto briefly turned away before recommitting to the apex, but was still too early – he glanced the inside wall and knocked off his front-left wheel.
The impact was enough to throw Colapinto into the wall on the outside, enduring a heavy impact with onboard replays showing Colapinto’s head bouncing around the cockpit.
The car skittered down the track minus all of its corners, with Colapinto unable to bring it under control as he waited for the Williams to dissipate its momentum.
Thankfully, Colapinto was uninjured as he radioed in to say he was OK, before clambering free and striking the Halo on his car in obvious frustration.
Colapinto’s participation in the Las Vegas Grand Prix isn’t certain, however, with Williams revealing details of the crash after qualifying – the Argentinean driver did not take part in any post-session media duties.
“During Qualifying, Franco sustained a significant impact of over 50G, requiring a medical check-up,” read the statement.
“An impact of this magnitude is obviously significant and severe and he will need to be evaluated again tomorrow before we will know whether he is clear to race.
“Franco’s health is all that matters and we are glad he is otherwise okay. We will provide further updates when we can.”
The damage to the track barriers resulted in a significant delay to qualifying proceedings, with the FIA confirming repairs to the infrastructure required: “There’s a lot of debris on track and some potential barrier repairs needed, the circuit operations team are currently working on this.”
Colapinto’s car was collected up and brought back to the pitlane, with another huge repair job facing Williams after a spate of crashes in Brazil pushed the small team to its limits in terms of spares.
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