The first free practice session of the Malaysian Grand Prix was red flagged for a fire in the pit lane. No one was injured, but the cleanup did take a little while.
The incident involved Kevin Magnussen’s Renault less than ten minutes into free practice one. The Dane had completed his installation lap and returned to the pit lane so that the engineers could give the car a quick checkup. However, the car didn’t quite make it into the garage, as it erupted in flames. The car was being pushed back into the garage at the time of the fire and luckily there are no major injuries to report.
Kevin Magnussen was safely removed from the car and the marshals were quickly on the scene to fight the blaze. Despite the best efforts of the marshals and the team, the flames lasted for several minutes, as the team members pumped fuel out of the car.
A fluid was reported seen leaking from the top of the engine cover, likely fueling the fire. The Renault F1 Team are investigating the issue. A Tweet from the team shows the aftermath of the incident:
We would tweet but things are a tad heated at the second. If you needed a reason to watch #FP1 though…#MalaysiaGP pic.twitter.com/mFnGZx5ZsW
— Renault Sport F1 (@RenaultSportF1) September 30, 2016
Magnussen was unable to record a lap time for the session, as his scorched car was unable to return to the track. Meanwhile, on the other side of the garage, Jolyon Palmer was able to complete 28 laps of the session.
