FIA confirm major track change with Turn 5 issue already raised ‘in the drivers’ briefing’

The FIA have replaced the grass strip at the Hungaroring’s Turn 5 with gravel after Yuki Tsunoda suffered a heavy shunt in qualifying.

From the high of getting both cars in Saturday’s Q3 for the Hungarian Grand Prix , Tsunoda’s side of the VCARB garage found themselves with a lot of work to rebuild his VCARB01 after a big off.

Turn 5 issue was raised with the FIA ‘in the drivers’ briefing’

The Japanese driver ran wide at Turn 5 and put wheels onto the grass strip only to lose control of his car, smashing side-on into the barriers causing heavy damage to the left side of the VCARB.

His team boss Peter Bayer blamed the grass strip, revealing the drivers had already raised concerns about it during their drivers’ briefing.

“It was mentioned in the drivers’ briefing,” Bayer told Motorsport.com . “The ground sank a little and there is a wave that has the effect like a sausage kerb. He found it.”

This prompted a closer inspection of the grass with the FIA making the call to remove it overnight and instead lay down gravel.

FIA race director Niels Wittich confirmed this in his pre-race notes, which read: “The last 4.0 m of the grass strip behind the exit kerb in Turn 5 on LHS have been replaced with gravel.”

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Tsunoda gave his thoughts on his crash to F1TV, saying: “To be honest, I felt great in the turn — I didn’t expect that! I just ran wide to be honest, probably because I was on the limit.

“It’s obviously Q3, and half of the tyre went on the grass — but to be honest with those kind of things, normally it happens.

“But probably because it was wet, it kind of exaggerated it, and I went wide.

“To be honest, until that corner — I mean, even Turn 5, the lap was great so it’s very shame.”

He will start the Grand Prix from the 10th on the grid, one place behind his VCARB team-mate Daniel Ricciardo is P9.

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