Aussie youngster Jack Doohan’s car goes up in flames in Monaco Formula 2 race before terrifying near miss

Australian driver Jack Doohan has crashed out of feature race at Monaco in a blaze. The 20-year-old was on the precipice of a podium finish, sitting fourth, when his car was damaged at a chicane before crashing into the wall at Massenet corner. Watch the latest sport on Channel 7 or stream for free on Doohan jumped out of the car before smoke quickly turned into fire.

Race marshals rushed over to extinguish the blaze, but they were caught in a frightening moment when Victor Martins zoomed past and had to swerve out of the way to avoid hitting them because the race had not yet been red flagged. There had been a yellow flag though, and Martins was dealt a drive through penalty for not slowing down under those conditions. “He (Martins) came SO CLOSE to hitting marshals tending to Doohan’s car under waved yellows and safety car,” F1 journalist Chris Medland said of the incident.

Motorsport writer Ed Spencer added: “All going off in . Doohan crashes out and the car catches fire, race control makes a pig’s ear of reordering the pack and Martins gets a drive-through after nearly running down two marshals. ” Doohan’s car then narrowly avoided disaster for a second time when Zane Moloney, who finished third behind Frederik Vesti and Theo Pourchaire, avoided smashing into the wrecked car by a matter of inches.

. Meantime in the F1, double world champion Max Verstappen led a soggy and slippery Monaco grand prix from start to finish to stretch his Formula One lead to 39 points and earn Red Bull a sixth win in as many races this season. In a race livened up by a downpour after a processional 51 laps in dry conditions, Spaniard Fernando Alonso finished second for Aston Martin but a massive 27.

9 seconds behind at the chequered flag on Sunday. Frenchman Esteban Ocon completed the podium in third place for Renault-owned Alpine, their first of the season, with Mercedes’ seven-times world champion Lewis Hamilton fourth and taking a bonus point for fastest lap. “That was a real Monaco,” Verstappen said after a 78-lap race that lasted an hour and 48 minutes.

“It was incredibly slippery and when you are that far in the lead you don’t want to push too hard but also you don’t want to lose too much time so it’s quite difficult in that scenario. “I clipped the wall a few times and it was super difficult out there. But that’s Monaco.

” The win was Verstappen’s fourth of the season, second in Monaco and 39th of his career. Mexican team mate Sergio Perez, his closest title rival, started in last position after a qualifying crash and finished two laps down in 16th. Mercedes’ George Russell was fifth and home hero Charles Leclerc finished sixth for Ferrari.

Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, McLaren’s Lando Norris and teammate Oscar Piastri completed the points positions. Verstappen led away cleanly from the start on the medium tyres, with Alonso opting for the harder compound and slotting in close behind with no change to the rest of the points positions. If the podium ended up being the same top three as on the starting grid, the rain brought added excitement as drivers slid around the track, some getting too close to the barriers, before pitting for intermediate tyres and then full wets.

Verstappen delayed his pitstop to coincide with the rain while Alonso initially pitted for medium tyres and then had to come in again for intermediates, losing a possible chance to take the lead. “We thought to play a long game with the strategy but Max drove super well on the medium tyres and extended that first stint. We didn’t have any chance and then at the end the rain put things a bit complicated out there,” said Alonso.

“It was not easy and I was surprised there were no safety cars from incidents, I think everyone was doing an amazing job today to keep the cars on track. ” While Alonso celebrated his fifth podium of the season, and best result yet for Aston Martin, Canadian team mate Lance Stroll retired after repeated tangles with rivals. The only other driver not running at the finish was Haas’s Kevin Magnussen, whose team mate Nico Hulkenberg was 17th in the team’s 150th race and collected a five-second penalty for causing a collision with Williams’ Logan Sargeant.

Sargeant spent his afternoon showing that overtaking is possible on the world’s most glamorous street circuit by allowing a string of drivers to get past him. Perez pitted at the end of lap one for hard tyres to go the distance, jumping Alfa Romeo’s Guanyu Zhou and Hulkenberg in the pits to move up to 18th but his race soon fell apart in a nightmare of five pitstops. He was also lapped by Verstappen long before half way.

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