Lando Norris has been cleared to race at the Belgian Grand Prix after his heavy crash during qualifying.
The McLaren driver lost control of his car in heavy rain and had a big impact with the wall at the famous uphill corner at Spa-Francorchamps.
Norris immediately radioed his team to say he was OK and he climbed out of the car, although he appeared to be holding his elbow as he walked away.
Norris went to a local hospital for precautionary X-rays on his elbow, while McLaren repaired the car, adding a new gearbox which leaves Norris with a five-place grid penalty and will start 14th on the grid for Sunday’s race.
On Saturday evening McLaren confirmed Norris had been cleared to compete in Sunday’s race by the trackside doctor and the FIA medical delegate.
Norris’ crash will only increase discussions around the safety of the famous corner, which has been thrown into focus due to an increase in incidents in recent years.
On Friday evening, two W Series drivers went to hospital after crashing out in qualifying at the same point of the race track.
In August, former Williams driver Jack Aitken had a huge crash at the same point during the Spa 24 Hours endurance race. Aitken has been one of the drivers to call for changes to be made to the corner.
Norris had told McLaren there was a lot of standing water on the circuit shortly before his crash.
Four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel had also radioed his team, Aston Martin, to convey a message to race control that the aquaplaning on the circuit meant it should be red flagged.
When told about Norris’ crash and the red flag a short time later, Vettel let his feelings be known.
Vettel said on his radio: “Yep, well what the f– did I say? What did I say? Red flag! It’s unnecessary!”
Vettel was the next car through Eau Rouge and he slowed down to pull alongside Norris’ car to check if the McLaren driver was OK. Both drivers gave each other the thumbs up.
The red flag delayed qualifying and as the rain intensified it looked like the session would be unlikely to restart in the afternoon.