Heidfeld on Hungary explosion: It was a lot more scary!

Heidfeld on Hungary explosion: It was a lot more scary!

One of the moments of yesterday’s Hungarian GP, which McLaren’s Jenson Button won ahead of Seb Vettel and Fernando Alonso, was Nick Heidfeld’s explosive incident. The German’s R31 caught fire when exiting the pits for the second time on lap 25, leading to an explosion. He was unharmed.

Apparently, the pitstop took longer than usual due to a wheelnut issue, and Lotus Renault GP believes the R31’s forward facing exhausts overheated while the car was stationary, setting the bodywork on fire. Getting up to racing speed didn’t douse the fire, but made it worse. Heidfeld then parked his car at the side of the pit exit and leapt out. The car’s sidepod then exploded, and other cars had to dodge the debris.

This wasn’t Heidfeld first hot incident this year, as his car also caught fire in free practice at the Spanish GP. “It was a lot more scary. At Barcelona I looked left, saw a small fire and had time to stop. This one, I looked straight, saw the fire and it got hot,” he told Autosport. “I really felt the temperature. It was a bit scary – much more than Barcelona.”

“They are still looking into it. The stop was a bit longer, so that might be one of the reasons, but it is not like the stop was very long – it was not that I was stationary for 20 seconds or something. We are still investigating,” he added.

Their cars may be running hot, but the performance is not. Lotus Renault GP left Hungary without points and have just scored six points in the last four races, in contrast with the 42 points they bagged in the first four races. They are currently fifth in the Constructors’ championship with 66 points, 14 behind Mercedes GP Petronas.

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Danny Tan

Danny Tan loves driving as much as he loves a certain herbal meat soup, and sweet engine music as much as drum beats. He has been in the auto industry since 2006, previously filling the pages of two motoring magazines before joining this website. Enjoys detailing the experience more than the technical details.

 

Comments

  • antaras on Aug 01, 2011 at 3:53 pm

    To those that wanna see the explosion again…
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9tF7g3CwK8

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  • fadlee on Aug 01, 2011 at 5:11 pm

    i was expecting some sort of a video in this post..

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  • biasa ler, Proton..in M’sia happen all the time on the street..what’s the big deal??

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  • dodgeviper88 on Aug 01, 2011 at 7:43 pm

    Secretly (or shall i say openly) Tony Fernandez is pleased. *muahahahahahaha*

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    • Faddd on Aug 03, 2011 at 2:14 pm

      I bet he’ll say, well what are you waiting for? go print that full page newspaper ad like last time when you’ve won, hahaha…….! Now the PR dept. hiding under their desk, hehehe how to hide this embarrassing incident……

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  • T4VR-Ralph on Aug 01, 2011 at 8:27 pm

    That’s what will happen if you let Proton handle stuff…

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  • jay8393 on Aug 01, 2011 at 9:28 pm

    This video that shows how quickly Heidfeld got out of the car.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWYlyUy7zmw&feature=related

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  • Frank on Aug 01, 2011 at 10:17 pm

    Wow!! Thats was some kungfu jump by Heidfeld!!

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  • DArkerMarker on Aug 01, 2011 at 11:16 pm

    F1 barbeque, with Lotus sauce……anyone??

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    • why always when malaysia petronas take a great team it never get best result, for example,first they with sauber they just got 8,9 or after ten no, then with BMW also same and then with mercedes now also the same…but when the team not with petronas ooo,,lok at the sauber now…hebat,,,mercedes back then ,,,lagi hebat,,,,what the problem here

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  • kington on Aug 02, 2011 at 12:38 am

    I think there weren’t a lot of Proton engineers involved in the team yet… maybe just on a learning basis i think?

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  • azrai on Aug 02, 2011 at 8:04 am

    It is cause by the Ron 95 according to some quarters in Malaysia.

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  • sLayer on Aug 02, 2011 at 8:59 am

    Nothing to do with proton…its Lotus Renault..

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  • 98tecknik89 on Aug 02, 2011 at 9:12 am

    cannot be stationary more than 20 seconds? O.o

    wow…that is dangerous

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    • jay8393 on Aug 02, 2011 at 6:54 pm

      That is due to the radical exhaust design. The design on this car is that the exhaust pipe flows is routed to the front of the car before exiting somewhere below the front sidepods. I had been expecting it to experience over-heating problems already.

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