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HUNGARORING, Hungary - German driver Nick Heidfeld was forced to pull out of the 2011 Hungarian F1 GP on Sunday when his Renault caught fire at the exit from the pits lane.
Heidfeld leapt to safely right across his right front wheel as flames erupted from the opposite side of the ca, just before a small explosion threw bits of the car on to the exit road.
MARSHAL HURT
A fire marshal appeared to be hurt be flying debris as he hurried to douse the flames.
Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel was leading the race ahead of McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton on a Hungaroring track made slippery by rain. McLaren's Jenson Button was the eventual winner, with Vettel second and Ferrari's Fernando Alonso third.
Heidfeld, 34, was in a similar incident at the 2011 Spanish GP but said Sunday's incident was far worse and more frightening.
His car began to smoke during his second pit-stop, which took longer than usual due to a wheel-nut problem. The team believes its forward-facing exhausts overheated while the car was stationary and this caused to the fire.
Heidfeld exited the pits, hoping the high-speed airflow would extinguish the flames, but instead it made it worse and when he stopped on track the car's side-pod exploded.
'A BIT SCARY'
"It was so scary," he said. "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.
"I really felt the temperature. It was a bit scary - much more so than Barcelona."
He said that the team was still investigating the cause.
Heidfeld leapt to safely right across his right front wheel as flames erupted from the opposite side of the ca, just before a small explosion threw bits of the car on to the exit road.
MARSHAL HURT
A fire marshal appeared to be hurt be flying debris as he hurried to douse the flames.
Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel was leading the race ahead of McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton on a Hungaroring track made slippery by rain. McLaren's Jenson Button was the eventual winner, with Vettel second and Ferrari's Fernando Alonso third.
Heidfeld, 34, was in a similar incident at the 2011 Spanish GP but said Sunday's incident was far worse and more frightening.
His car began to smoke during his second pit-stop, which took longer than usual due to a wheel-nut problem. The team believes its forward-facing exhausts overheated while the car was stationary and this caused to the fire.
Heidfeld exited the pits, hoping the high-speed airflow would extinguish the flames, but instead it made it worse and when he stopped on track the car's side-pod exploded.
'A BIT SCARY'
"It was so scary," he said. "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.
"I really felt the temperature. It was a bit scary - much more so than Barcelona."
He said that the team was still investigating the cause.