Practice session track invader at Chinese GP wanted to 'drive an F1 car'

The spectator who dashed across the track during the second practice session at the Chinese Grand Prix and narrowly avoided disaster had said that he wanted to drive a Formula One car, according to sources.

Television images showed the man dashing across the start-finish straight, after one car had passed and as another approached at about 260 kilometers-per-hour, before vaulting the pit wall. The security then apprehended him and he was handed over to police.

Reports confirmed by official sources at the circuit revealed that the man had been waving a grandstand ticket and was heading for the Ferrari garage and had explained, in Chinese, that he wanted to drive a car.

Following the incident, track security at the Shanghai International Circuit was tightened during the second of the day's sessions, Stuff.co.nz reported.

The man was dressed in dark clothes, and ran across the track from the grandstand and leapt over a short wall and through a gap in the fence before being apprehended by security staff near pit lane. He barely made it across the track in between cars coming down the main straight.

Similar invasions, while uncommon, have happened in the past, with an Irish former priest running onto the track during the 2003 British Grand Prix while a disgruntled Mercedes Benz employee invaded the Hockenheim track during the 2001 German Grand Prix, the report added.