Formula 2 drivers Isack Hadjar and Ritomo Miyata had a heart-stopping near miss in Monaco during qualifying.
Last month, Round 5 of the FIA Formula 2 Championship took place in Monte Carlo and saw British 19-year-old Zak O'Sullivan clinching his maiden F2 victory.
However, ahead of the feature race, French-Algerian driver Hadjar, 19, and Japanese 24-year-old Miyata were nearly caught up in a disaster when the latter’s car suffered a dire problem.
It’s said that the Rodin Motorsport vehicle encountered a major issue with its Mecachrome power unit, thus forcing Miyata to abort his lap of the Circuit de Monaco.
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Due to having no power in his vehicle, the driver was forced to reduce his speed and crawl through the iconic track tunnel instead.
During this heart-racing moment, Miyata elected to keep his car to the right-hand side of the barrier and was probably praying he could navigate out of the tunnel before any oncoming vehicles sped into the back of him.
But while the reigning Super Formula champion rolled towards a tunnel blind spot, Campos Racing’s Hadjar was barrelling behind him.
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As the powerless F2 racer turned the bend, the latter roared around the corner.
Thankfully though, the Red Bull Driver Academy star realised Miyata was in front of him and used his quick reflexes to swerve to the left.
Remarkably, Hadjar managed to avoid contact with the outside wall of the tunnel and travel on through to the Nouvelle Chicane.
If the driver had seen his opponent’s car a fraction of a second later, he could have made contact on the left-hand-side of the vehicle and potentially crashed into the outside wall of the tunnel.
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Following the near-miss qualifying incident, which has since gone viral across social media, motorsport fans have been having their say.
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One user of X, formerly known as Twitter wrote: “Isack Hadjar escaped the accident with a magnificent reflex.”
“That seemed reckless,” typed a second. “Pretty sure that light blinked 5 times and 6 by the time he reached the corner. Anything done a fraction of a second sooner or differently and that could’ve been catastrophic.”
Another commented: “Very very impressive from Hadjar! This has the potential to be so bad! The Monaco tunnel is not where you want to cause a crash!”
A fourth said: “Good lord, lightning reflexes!!
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“Miyata, you need a new guardian angel because the current has passed away,” joked another racing fan.
Following his near-miss with Miyata, Hadjar went on to earn himself a P3 starting grid slot for the feature race.
Starting behind Richard Vershoor and Victor Martins, the teenager eventually finished second behind O’Sullivan.
With a total of 78 points, Hadjar heads to Barcelona later this month in second place in the Formula 2 2024. standings