Charles Leclerc suffered the ignominy of crashing out on the formation lap of the São Paulo Grand Prix which then saw Kevin Magnussen and Alex Albon involved in a heavy smash at the start.
Leclerc was due to start from second on the grid in his Ferrari at Interlagos, and with a tyre advantage over Red Bull polesitter Max Verstappen who was on used softs compared to new for the Monégasque.
But as the cars toured around the old-school circuit in preparation for the race start, Leclerc speared off the track and into a barrier at Turn 8.
Leclerc was clearly distraught as he sat in the cockpit of his stricken SF23, his head bowed and shaking from side to side.
Over the radio, Leclerc said: “I lost the hydraulics! I lost the hydraulics! Why the f*** am I always so unlucky?”
The car had sustained front-wing damage, and returning to the track, the hydraulics issue kicked in again, forcing him to park behind a barrier.
“I lost the steering wheel and I went straight, basically because I had no hydraulic anymore,” Leclerc said afterwards.
“I don’t think it’s a hydraulic problem. I mean, I know what it ism but I can’t go too much into detail.
“And there was an engine thing that made me lock the rear wheels and then obviously I spun and hit the wall, so I couldn’t do anything.”
When the 19 remaining cars took to the grid for the start, from sixth, McLaren’s Lando Norris made a blistering start to move up to second behind Verstappen into the first corner.
Behind, though, chaos unfolded as Alex Albon in his Williams drew alongside the Haas of Nico Hulkenberg who had started directly in front of him.
The front-right wheel of Hulkenberg’s car then made contact with the left-rear of the FW45, sending the Thai-British driver into a spin which saw him collide with the right-hand sidepod of the second Haas of Kevin Magnussen.
From the impact, Albon hit a wall, resulting in him coming to rest in the initial area of the Turn 1 run-off, with Magnussen up ahead.
Additionally, the left-rear tyre also became dislodged and bounced along the track as the rest of the field filed through, hitting the rear wing of Daniel Ricciardo’s AlphaTauri.
In the mayhem, Magnussen also hit the rear wing of Oscar Piastri’s McLaren.
The incident naturally resulted in a safety car, and eventual red flag, allowing McLaren time to repair Piastri’s car as he was initially told over the team radio he would have to retire.
A 25-minute delay followed as marshals cleared the debris from the track, whilst repairs were also carried out to damaged barriers.
With repairs also carried out to both the McLaren of Piastri, and Ricciardo’s AlphaTauri, the FIA confirmed that whilst they would be permitted to leave the pits with the rest of the field, instead of taking to the grid, they would be forced to restart from the pit lane.
Both were a lap down on the rest of the field which had completed a Safety Car before the red flag was deployed.
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