Nick Heidfeld has been in the hot seat of late, coming under pressure at Renault for not performing to expectations. Last night at the Hungarian Grand Prix he found himself in a hot seat of a different kind.
As he was being released from his pit box Heidfeld’s car expelled smoke from its left sidepod and sparks were flying. It wasn’t long until the car had erupted into flames. He pulled over to the side of the track just after the pit exit and was able to safely leap out of his flaming Renault.
Fire marshals were quickly on hand to extinguish the blaze. Although one marshal got a rude shock when the affected sidepod exploded shooting debris into his leg.
Alan Permane, Lotus Renault GP Chief Race Engineer, explains, “Nick had a very poor start and struggled in the wet conditions. In his second pit stop we had a problem with one of the wheel nuts meaning that the car was sat at high revs for a long time. This meant a build-up of heat which caused a fire. Although it looked spectacular it was only a small part of bodywork which burnt on the left-hand sidepod.”
The video above shows footage of the incident from the TV cameras. After the break a fan video filmed at the track shows the sidepod explosion.
One reply on “VIDEO: Nick Heidfeld’s hot pants”
This is why I don’t want to be a marshall… Braver man than I… I liked Heidfelds leap out of the cockpit, almost went A over T…