A Lucky Escape: Narain Karthikeyan Survives A Qualifying Crash

There are times in sport where an athlete pays less attention to how competitive he or she is and more on the basic things like life, and the joys of being able to have your body in one piece.

No doubt this would be the thought process of a certain Narain Karthikeyan after a sickening qualifying accident at the fifth and most recent round of the Super Formula season at Autopolis.

As what was left of the SF-14 machine settled on to the straight after a collision with a tyre barrier, one wondered if Karthikeyan would make it out of the stricken machine in one piece.

But it is perhaps to the credit of the series that is now the fastest outside of F1 that even the safety of their machines matches that of its F1 counterparts.

Karthikeyan clambered out of the wreckage and lined up on the back of the grid in 19th place for the race that was held without any refuelling stops due to the pits at Autopolis being situated on the left side of the main straight. This meant that the refuelling hoses were not long enough to be attatched to the fuel intake that is situated on the right of the car.

It made the race unintentionally similar to the current guise of F1, where the drivers have to make it through a race on just a single load of fuel.

Karthikeyan was able to rise to the challenge admirably given his poor starting position as he sliced through the field to get to ninth place before a technical glitch caused him to retire with five laps left.

At least he left with his bones intact!