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MICHAEL SCHUMACHER-AUSTRIA 2003 | |||
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 After
Eddie Irvine's fiery exit from the 1995 Belgium Grand Prix, the F1 world went
several years without flames in the pits. We assumed that fire and pit stops
were no longer associated with one another, but Schumi's fiery pit stop at the
2003 Austrian Grand Prix proved us wrong.Schumacher pitted from the lead on lap 23. A couple of laps before hand, Rubens Barrichello had pitted, and there had been a problem with his hose, and therefore Michael's fuel hose had to be used instead. They used the same hose during Schumacher's stop. Upon application of the fuel hose to the nozzle, a small amount of fuel leaked, probably from the previous pit stop, and made contact with the bodywork, causing a small fire. As the mechanics released the hose, the flames grew, but were quickly extinguished with four extinguishers. "I guess the mechanics thought I was a little too cool and wanted to warm me up," Schumacher joked. The stop took around 20 seconds, but Schumacher appeared unmoved by the whole experience, and stayed in his car, wiping foam from his visor, awaiting the call for him to accelerate away again. "Seeing the fire was not nice but I think the guys reacted very well with the extinguishers," said Schumacher. "I was watching around and seeing what was going on. You know you have protection. You have the overalls. You know you can survive for a good while." Schumacher emerged from the pits in third place, and moved up a place when Montoya's engine blew, and gained the lead when Raikkonen pitted later in the race. Schumacher went on to win perhaps one of the most impressive Grands Prix of his career.
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| Images from this Incident | ||||
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Flames spurt from Schumacher's car. (Unknown Source) |
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Ferrari mechanics get fire extinguishers onto
the flames. (Unknown Source) |
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