Formula 2 driver Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak escaped unharmed after a fiery crash at the Spanish Grand Prix.
The Thai driver, in F2 practice on the first morning of action at the new Madring circuit, which poses the prospect of becoming a “car-killer” at this weekend’s race, lost control and smashed his car into the wall in the third sector.
The rear of his car then burst into flames, but Inthraphuvasak quickly leapt out of the cockpit.
The car was ablaze for a few minutes before marshals arrived with fire extinguishers.
The incident comes a day after drivers such as Max Verstappen and George Russell acknowledged the challenging nature of the circuit with its close walls and high-speed corners.
Verstappen warned that the circuit could prove to be a potential “car-killer” while Russell believes the new track is the “craziest circuit on the calendar.”
The Briton added: “You have real high-speed corners, Jeddah-esque. Here, the walls are very close, there’s no margin for error. Then you have corners like Baku: high-speed with slow braking zones. I’m excited to trial it out – I do think it’ll be really challenging to overtake.”
The crash comes just an hour before the first F1 practice session at 12:30pm BST.
Read MoreWelcome to the ‘car-killer’ Madring: F1’s ‘craziest circuit’ debuts this weekend
