Spanish test driver Adrian Valles ended his return to the wheel of a Spyker formula one car on Monday with a trip to hospital.
The 20-year-old crashed heavily at the Circuit de Catalunya’s Turn Three in the late afternoon, after every formula one team began a three-day test on the outskirts of the city of Barcelona.
Some reports estimate the speed of the impact at more than 240kph, and although Valles was not seriously hurt, the new FIA-mandated impact light on his dash board required him to visit the medical centre for a check.
He was then sent to the Hospital General de Catalunya, but was immediately released following some tests.
In a statement, the Dutch squad Spyker said the single seater “sustained heavy damage”, which will be worked on overnight so that team regular Adrian Sutil can hopefully take over on Tuesday.
“It looks as though he had a problem with the car through turn one and then lost control through three,” Mike Gascoyne said of the crash.
Meanwhile, many teams and media representatives left the circuit on Monday evening thinking that Ralf Schumacher had turned his fortunes upside-down by setting a blistering pace.
It turned out, however, that the German’s sizzling best had been set after he cut a chicane, relocating his Toyota to fourth place and establishing Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen as the dominant runner on day one.
Indeed, a handful of the Finn’s fast laps had been good enough to outpace the next best contender on the final time sheet, which was Takuma Sato in the ever-impressive Super Aguri.
Prior to Valles’ crash, Williams’ Kuzuki Nakajima was responsible for the other two red flags; one for a mechanical stoppage and the other for a sizeable shunt at turn 9.
“He’s ok and the car will be fine to run tomorrow,” said the Grove team’s test manager Dickie Stanford.
Rain is predicted to spoil running on Tuesday, but team managers have already agreed to extend the test for another day should the clouds turn dark.
