'I would have died' fumes Gasly after avoiding hitting crane

SUZUKA, Japan (AP) — An emotional Pierre Gasly said he feared for his life at the start of the Japanese Grand Prix when he narrowly avoided crashing into a crane on the same race track where countryman Jules Bianchi was killed in a similar incident.

The crane, or tractor as the drivers called it, was deployed Sunday when cars began sliding off course at the start of the rain-soaked race. The recovery vehicle was on the Suzuka Circuit to collect Carlos Sainz Jr.’s car after Sainz had gone off course in the wet conditions.

Although other drivers passed by the crane at slow speed, Gasly had started the race from the pit lane and was rushing to catch the pack in poor visibility when he came upon the safety crew. He sped past the crane and safety worker who was standing on the track.

The FIA after the race penalized Gasly for not slowing under red flag conditions, but the Frenchman was furious.

“What is this tractor on track?” Gasly screamed on his team radio. “I passed next to it. This is unacceptable. Remember what happened. Can’t believe this! We don’t want to see ever, a crane on the track.”

Bianchi in 2014 lost control of his car in wet conditions on the same track and collided with a recovery vehicle. He remained comatose with a head injury for nine months before he died at age 25. Bianchi’s death was the first from an on-track incident in F1 since Ayrton Senna’s fatal accident in 1994.

“We lost Jules already. We all lost an amazing guy, an amazing driver, for the reasons that we know. Eight years ago, on the same track, in the same conditions, with a crane," Gasly fumed after the race. "How? How today can we see a crane, not only in the gravel, on a race track, while we are still on the track? I don’t understand