The Formula 1 Chinese GP opens with a mysterious fire on the track: “There is fire in the grass”

A very particular episode that took place in the initial stages of thethe only free practice session that opened the program of the Chinese Grand Prixfifth round of Formula 1 World Championship 2024, the first that includes the new Sprint Race format. In fact, a few minutes after the start of FP1 the drivers found themselves passing next to a small fire that suddenly broke out on the edge of the track in Turn 7.

The alarm was raised by Alpine standard bearer Esteban Ocon who, as soon as he passed that point on the Shanghai route, opened radio communications with the wall warning of the fire: “There’s fire in the grass in Turn 7” the warning from the French driver. At that point she intervened the FIA ​​Race Direction immediately suspended the test session and returned all the single-seaters to the pitlane in order to allow the track marshals to put out the fire.

With the help of a tanker and some fire extinguishers, the fire was put out in a few minutes and, albeit with a huge patch of burnt grassthe free practice session was able to resume with the drivers returning to the track to complete the preparation work for the race weekend (the fastest in the end was Stroll with the Aston Martin followed by Piastri with the McLaren and Verstappen and Perez with the Red Bulls, while the Ferraris of Leclerc and Sainz were outside the top-10 but concentrated exclusively on simulating race pace for the Sprint).

A fire which therefore, fortunately, did not have any serious consequences but which leaves some doubts as the origin of the flames is still shrouded in mystery. The most probable hypotheses are those of a flammable liquid or an incandescent piece lost from some of the single-seaters that were on the track and ended up on the grass, but at the moment there is no official confirmation in this regard as The causes that triggered the sudden fire were not disclosed which flared up during free practice for the Chinese GP in Shanghai.