Hartley 'had no warning' of suspension failure

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Brendon Hartley said that the failure of the front left suspension on his Toro Rosso during final practice on Saturday morning has come as a complete shock to him.

“It was very instantaneous,” he said. "There was no warning."

The Kiwi was also perplexed by the cause of the dramatic failure, which sent him into the gravel at Brooklands. The car came close to digging in and rolling, but fortunately the halo device kept him safe as the car went into the barrier.

“I didn’t hit any kerbs and there were no vibrations beforehand," he said. "[It happened] the moment that I hit the brake pedal.

“Obviously I tried to fight the car, and slow it down as much as I could, but I still hit the wall pretty hard.

"There’s very little time in the car to be scared. There’s too much focus and other things going on," he added.

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"Maybe the last one or two seconds when I realised: ‘Yep, I’m definitely going to hit the wall pretty hard’, and you brace yourself.

"It’s not fun. I wouldn’t say it’s scary. You’re so focused on the race car and you have adrenaline. I wouldn’t say fear really comes into it."

Hartley was checked over in the medical centre. Unlike Montreal - where he was sent to hospital for additional evaluation after a first lap accident in the Canadian Grand Prix - he was quickly given the okay.

Unfortunately his car was too badly damaged for him to take part in qualifying later in the day.

“I’m fine. The car was definitely not fine," he commented. "But yeah, another testament to the safety of modern Formula 1 and racetracks. Obviously I’ve had a few big hits this year and happy to walk away again.

"Disappointed not to make qualifying," he sighed. "The car was feeling good before the suspension failed. But yeah, disappointed not to get out there.”

The FIA ordered Toro Rosso to make a precautionary change of all suspension components on Pierre Gasly's sister car before allowing the French driver to take part in qualifying. He had a straightforward, incident-free session and qualified for tomorrow's race in 14th place.

Hartley still hopes to take part in the Grand Prix, assuming that the team can rebuild the car and race stewards give him the okay to start from the back row.

"I have full faith in everyone that they'll get the car ready for tomorrow and hopefully have a good race," he said, adding that he had no concern of the same failure happening again on Sunday.

"As a driver, I think you tend not to think about those things, because if you do, you'll lose lap time out there,” he said. “I know everyone's not taking it lightly."

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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.