Big accident for Ericsson at start of FP2!

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Marcus Ericsson has been involved in a major accident at the start of the second free practice session for the Italian Grand Prix at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza.

Ericsson lost control of his Sauber after it suddenly snapped hard to the left without warning while heading into the first chicane.

Subsequent video replays suggested that the car's DRS flap had failed to close as it neared the end of the main straight. With the track also still slightly damp from morning rain, it meant that the car became uncontrollable under braking.

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After hitting the barrier, the car was flipped into multiple violent barrel-rolls before finally coming to a halt right-side-up.

Ericsson was able to respond to calls from his pit wall, telling them that he didn't know what had happened to cause the accident. He was able to climb out of the car and appeared to have escaped injury.

The Swede was taken to the medical centre for precautionary checks. However he was soon walking back down pit lane to report in with his team, which was busy checking over the DRS on the car of his team mate Charles Leclerc.

The team's official Twitter feed subsequently confirmed that Ericsson was "okay" after the accident. It seems unlikely that he will be sidelined from this weekend's race on medical ground - assuming that Sauber can build a new car for him overnight.

The practice session was immediately red flagged while marshalls attended to the accident. There was considerable debris to clear up, and the barrier itself needed to be checked over and repaired before the session could resume.

Leclerc ventured out, but he immediately reported to the team that he was seemingly suffering the same issue as his team mate: "There is the problem, there is the problem, DRS is staying open."

He was told to return to pit lane immediately, where the FIA's technical officer was on hand to watch Sauber's response to the issue to ensure safety was top priority.

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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.