Saturday’s race was a very surrealistic race right from the start, with the two iSport cars hitting each other. That set the tone, and then there was Ernesto’s accident and the long wait and confusion after that. We were trying to find out information on how Ernesto was. We all really thought the worst because the accident was just so massive, and it reminded us of Marco Campos’ one pretty much in the same place in 1995; a lot of us were thinking ‘this is not good’. That was tough, but when we finally heard he was moving and conscious that was good news.
As to what caused the crash, we asked him and he said the last thing he remembered was being airborne. He said he was right behind Michael Ammermüller and didn’t see any yellow flags. It was the first lap when everyone is always racing very hard, and if he was behind Ammermüller’s rear wing it is probably a bit difficult to see a yellow flag. I think that was probably the cause of him not being able to see when Ammermüller slowed down. It was obviously just such a split-second thing. After that he just remembers seeing the sky and then waking up again in the medical centre.
When I went to see him in the hospital after the crash I found him in good spirits, trying to pick up the nurses and so on! He said the car was absolutely fantastic, so we knew we had finally found the right set-up for him and we knew we could work well together. Now we’re just waiting for him to recuperate.
