An Australian F1 fan was left bloodied after being struck on the arm by a nearly metre-long piece of metal car debris in a terrifying moment during the chaotic crash-frenzy that was the Australian GP at Albert Park.
Luckily, fan Will Street revealed today, the object hit him rather than his fiancee standing by his side, saying it: “probably would have hit her right in the head.”
Standing near Turn 2, Will Street watched on as Kevin Magnussen’s Haas crashed at the corner, before the two Alpines crashed into each other in the ugly closing stages of a dramatic race.
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Asked what happened, Street told Sunrise: “It’s a great question, I’m not sure. I think Kevin Magnussen came around Turn 2, I followed him with my eyes. But straight ahead of me apparently a piece of debris had flown over the fence.
“Lots of people around me moved, and it managed to hit me right in the arm – I had my arm up, I had a radio piece in my ear. I’m not sure what happened really!”
Street said he was feeling fortunate that the incident wasn’t worse.
“Honestly I’m feeling pretty lucky. It ended up being not as serious as it could have been,” he said.
“The piece of debris was quite large. Standing right next to me was my fiancee and she’s a bit shorter than me. So where it hit me in the arm it probably would have hit her right in the head. Honestly I’m feeling pretty lucky it wasn’t worse.”
In a sad twist, Street did not even get to keep the metal object that caused a gash on his arm.
“After it hit me I was obviously a bit confused and bleeding all over my partner’s nice rug. So I was busy dealing with that,” he joked.
Verstappen, Hamilton react to Aus finish | 00:41
He added that race organisers had not yet been in contact with him, but said he enjoyed the race – despite losing an argument with his fiancee.
“It was a great race, it was a ridiculous race,” he said.
“It was quite funny because after the accident with Kevin Magnussen my partner said: ‘Oh I don’t know if I feel safe standing here.’
“And we convinced her to stay in the spot because it was great. And a couple of laps afterwards two Alpines managed to crash right in front of us again. I kind of lost the argument!”
It wasn’t the only scary fan moment at the Australian GP, with a large group of spectators rushing past barriers to access the track in the closing moments of the race.
Australian Grand Prix – Race Highlights | 07:03
