Alpine reveal ‘misjudgement’ that led to heavy Doohan crash in Suzuka FP2 as they assess chances of fixing car for Qualifying

A violent crash for Alpine rookie Jack Doohan brought out the red flags in Free Practice 2 for the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka – with the team later revealing the cause of the accident.

Having handed his Alpine A525 to reserve driver Ryo Hirakawa for FP1 on Friday morning, Doohan’s first push lap of the day in FP2 saw him crash heavily going into Turn 1 – with the Australian fortunately declaring himself “okay” after the incident, before being sent for checks in the circuit's Medical Centre.

FP2: Piastri sets the pace as Doohan crashes amid disrupted second practice in Japan

A quirk of the Suzuka track is that the Drag Reduction System on the rear wing needs to be flicked off manually by the drivers going into Turn 1, instead of shutting automatically as happens when the car is braked – and it seems that it was this that caught Doohan out, according to the team themselves.

“We are all relieved to see Jack walk away from his incident in Free Practice 2 and glad to see he is okay after his precautionary checks,” said Alpine Team Principal Oli Oakes. “It was a misjudgement of not closing the DRS into Turn 1. It is something to learn from.”

Going on to discuss whether the heavy damage to Doohan’s car could be remedied in time for Saturday’s FP3 and Qualifying action, Oakes added: “I know Jack and the team will be ready for tomorrow. His crew will work hard to have the car prepared after the damage.”

Reflecting on the crash, Doohan said: “First of all, I am okay after the incident. It was a heavy one, something that caught me by surprise, and I will learn from it.

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“I know the team has a lot of work ahead to repair the car going into tomorrow, so thanks in advance to them for their efforts. My focus is on tomorrow where we will have Free Practice 3 to get ready for Qualifying.”

Doohan will now look to maximise his FP3 in order to gain a feel for a Formula 1 car around Suzuka ahead of the all-important Qualifying session on Saturday afternoon.