Jack Doohan ‘okay’ after ‘heavy’ crash in practice at F1 Japanese Grand Prix
Photo by Bryn Lennon - Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images Alpine driver Jack Doohan’s ‘heavy’ crash brought out the red flag in Suzuka Jack Doohan missed the first practice session at this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix, as Alpine used FP1 to give reserve driver Ryō Hirakawa a chance to drive in one of the team’s required young driver practice sessions. Doohan returned to the car for FP2 but banked only four laps due to a “heavy” crash in Turn 1 that brought out the red flag and ended his day. “First of all, I am okay after the incident,” said Doohan in the team’s post-practice report. “It was a heavy one, something that caught me by surprise, and I will learn from it. I know the team has a lot of work ahead to repair the car going into tomorrow, so thanks in advance to them for their efforts. “My focus is on tomorrow where we will have Free Practice 3 to get ready for Qualifying.” You can see the video of the incident here: A sizeable crash for Jack Doohan in FP2 He is OK and out of the car#F1 #JapaneseGP pic.twitter.com/uCDCUcGKcy— Formula 1 (@F1) April 4, 2025 While telemetry data is not available for this particular lap, on a previous lap Doohan was traveling at 326 kilometers per hour when entering Turn 1, which comes at the end of a long straight and is at the end of the only DRS zone on the track: (Telemetry data courtesy of F1-Tempo). As you can hear in the above clip from the official F1 channel, Jolyon Palmer noted that Doohan kept the DRS open entering the turn, contributing to the hard crash. Alpine Team Principal Oliver Oakes confirmed that in the team’s post-session report. “We are all relieved to see Jack walk away from his incident in Free Practice 2 and glad to see he is OK after his precautionary checks,” described Oakes. “It was a misjudgment of not closing the DRS into Turn 1. It is something to learn from and I know Jack and the team will be ready for tomorrow. His crew will work hard to have the car prepared after the damage. “From a performance point of view today, there are some things for us to work on,” added Oakes. “Pierre [Gasly] had a good run in Free Practice 2, which bodes well for tomorrow, as did Ryo, who did a great job to run through the program this morning. We tried some set-up options between cars and we have a good direction to go in ahead of Qualifying.” On the other side of the garage Gasly, who finished P14 in FP1 and P9 in FP2, sounded confident, as well as relieved that his teammate was okay. “It is good to see that Jack is OK after his incident in Free Practice 2. Certainly, it was a heavy one and I am relieved to see he is fine after that,” said Gasly. “From our side, it was quite a busy day even with some of the stoppages and we managed to fit many things into our program. We tried some different set-ups and the car is feeling good and we have something to work with for the rest of the weekend,” added Gasly. Of course, more running would be beneficial but we’re all in the same position and we will focus on maximizing what we have tomorrow. “The midfield is close with only a few tenths between a number of cars. That’s what makes it exciting and we’ll give it our best shot tomorrow in Qualifying.”
Alpine driver Jack Doohan’s ‘heavy’ crash brought out the red flag in Suzuka
Jack Doohan missed the first practice session at this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix, as Alpine used FP1 to give reserve driver Ryō Hirakawa a chance to drive in one of the team’s required young driver practice sessions.
Doohan returned to the car for FP2 but banked only four laps due to a “heavy” crash in Turn 1 that brought out the red flag and ended his day.
“First of all, I am okay after the incident,” said Doohan in the team’s post-practice report. “It was a heavy one, something that caught me by surprise, and I will learn from it. I know the team has a lot of work ahead to repair the car going into tomorrow, so thanks in advance to them for their efforts.
“My focus is on tomorrow where we will have Free Practice 3 to get ready for Qualifying.”
You can see the video of the incident here:
A sizeable crash for Jack Doohan in FP2
He is OK and out of the car#F1 #JapaneseGP pic.twitter.com/uCDCUcGKcy— Formula 1 (@F1) April 4, 2025
While telemetry data is not available for this particular lap, on a previous lap Doohan was traveling at 326 kilometers per hour when entering Turn 1, which comes at the end of a long straight and is at the end of the only DRS zone on the track:
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25939357/Screenshot_2025_04_04_at_8.08.10_AM.png)
(Telemetry data courtesy of F1-Tempo).
As you can hear in the above clip from the official F1 channel, Jolyon Palmer noted that Doohan kept the DRS open entering the turn, contributing to the hard crash. Alpine Team Principal Oliver Oakes confirmed that in the team’s post-session report.
“We are all relieved to see Jack walk away from his incident in Free Practice 2 and glad to see he is OK after his precautionary checks,” described Oakes. “It was a misjudgment of not closing the DRS into Turn 1. It is something to learn from and I know Jack and the team will be ready for tomorrow. His crew will work hard to have the car prepared after the damage.
“From a performance point of view today, there are some things for us to work on,” added Oakes. “Pierre [Gasly] had a good run in Free Practice 2, which bodes well for tomorrow, as did Ryo, who did a great job to run through the program this morning. We tried some set-up options between cars and we have a good direction to go in ahead of Qualifying.”
On the other side of the garage Gasly, who finished P14 in FP1 and P9 in FP2, sounded confident, as well as relieved that his teammate was okay.
“It is good to see that Jack is OK after his incident in Free Practice 2. Certainly, it was a heavy one and I am relieved to see he is fine after that,” said Gasly.
“From our side, it was quite a busy day even with some of the stoppages and we managed to fit many things into our program. We tried some different set-ups and the car is feeling good and we have something to work with for the rest of the weekend,” added Gasly. Of course, more running would be beneficial but we’re all in the same position and we will focus on maximizing what we have tomorrow.
“The midfield is close with only a few tenths between a number of cars. That’s what makes it exciting and we’ll give it our best shot tomorrow in Qualifying.”
