Vettel 1.129 seconds off the pace with a minute and a half to go and not on track - What's the deal there?
The steering arm/track rod seems to twist and bend downwards just before it shatters - That says to me that there was an external force affecting the arm/rod, leading me to suspect that the initial failure was the lower wishbone. Hopefully the team will be able to figure it out and let us know later on.
I was watching the on-board footage live as it happened and it was shocking! It happened so quickly, and Billy had no chance to take any avoiding action.
Just seen a super-super slow-mo of Hartley's accident, with the left suspension assembly in close-up: The push rod and the track rod stay attached to the hub at the start of the failure, but both start to to bend and twist downwards, as though they're being pulled forwards and down, and then they shatter. I'm pretty convinced that the front arm section of the lower wishbone failed.
Will Toro Rosso be penalised for "releasing an unsafe car" ? The FIA should ground them until a thorough check of all parts has taken place, not just a superficial examination.
Unless there is a blindingly obvious fault with the Toro Rosso suspension components that the team had to know about, the stewards would be hard pushed to prove that the team released the car in an unsafe manner - So no, I can't see there being any penalties applied. The failure could be due to a material fault, a manufacturing fault, an assembly fault etc., etc., and it is most likely a complete one-off "freak" failure. The FIA's safety team went straight to the Toro Rosso garage to inspect the car, and Gastly's car along with the Toro Rosso mechanics, so they will need convincing that there is no obvious issue with the Toro Rosso suspension components (such as an obvious design issue). Toro Rosso erred on the side of caution by not sending Gastly back out on track in FP3, and instead spent the time inspection his car's suspension. I can't see the FIA grounded them if there are no obvious faults present.
