Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsManor

Merhi involved in big Formula Renault 3.5 crash

Roberto Merhi has been involved in a bizarre accident at the end of the opening Formula Renault 3.5 race in Austria.

After crossing the finish line, Merhi immediately slowed down on the right hand side of the grid and was almost stationary with a number of cars still racing to the line behind him. Nicolas Latifi was fighting to hold off Tom Dillmann for fifth place and moved to the inside as he crossed the line, unaware of the slow Merhi and slammed in to the rear of his car.

Latifi was launched in to a high-speed roll across the track, coming to rest the right way up as a number of other finishers had to take evasive action. Fortunately both drivers were able to climb out of their cars unaided and Merhi went to Latifi to check he was unhurt.

Merhi races for PONS Racing in between his F1 commitments for Manor and is currently 11th in the standings. He was relegated to 11th in the race at the Red Bull Ring due to a time penalty for exceeding track limits, with championship leader Oliver Rowland winning from Red Bull young driver Dean Stoneman and McLaren's Nyck de Vries.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.