'Last thing I expected': F1 driver's frightening high-speed moment

McLaren driver Lando Norris had to swerve to avoid a rogue marshal sprinting across the circuit during last weekend’s Bahrain GP, a race already marred by Romain Grosjean’s horrific opening lap crash.

Drivers would have been forgiven for being edgy throughout the race after Grosjean’s car split in two and burst into flames after colliding with the wall, while Racing Point’s Lance Stroll was also sent into a barrel roll after the race restart when he clashed with Alpha Tauri’s Daniil Kvyat.

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The race ultimately ended under the safety car when Sergio Perez suffered an engine failure, but it was while the race was neutralised in the meantime that Norris had a near miss with a marshal dashing to put out the flames on the Racing Point.

“There’s a guy f***ing running across the track!” he said on team radio.

“That’s the bravest guy I’ve ever seen,” - to which his engineer replied, “Brave or stupid.”

It was later revealed that the marshal had gone against FIA orders to instead enter the track with a fire extinguisher.

Norris said after the race that, with it being held at night and the marshals in dark suits, it was difficult to see them man running over the track.

“I panicked because it was the last thing I was expecting, the guy didn’t look left or right before he crossed the road,” Norris said after the race.

“It was a double yellow and I was going slow enough because there was no point in risking anything at all.

“It wasn’t the most visible guy because at that point I’m looking at the sky, he’s wearing pretty much black or dark blue and it wasn’t that easy to see. All I kind of saw was a bouncing extinguisher.

“It wasn’t lucky, just a bit of a crazy moment. The guy had some balls on him so fair play.”

F1 race director defends marshal’s actions

Formula One race director Michael Masi said the marshal had acted ‘on instinct’ and defended the decision to prioritise extinguishing Perez’s flaming engine.

“There was obviously another fire with Sergio Perez’s car and a fire marshal reacted on his instinct without any instruction and just saw fire. I would have said, particularly under the circumstances of what happened earlier, the priority was to put the fire out,” Masi told racefans.net.

But McLaren team boss Andreas Seidl was more concerned, urging the FIA to analyse what had happened to ensure marshals were kept as safe as possible, even under difficult circumstances.

“It’s obviously concerning if you hear a comment like this from Lando over the radio,” said Seidl.

“And it’s clearly something that should absolutely not happen. But I think as well, it’s something that’s important to analyse behind closed doors together with the FIA.

“I’m sure Michael is doing that, together with the input he wants from us.

“I’m sure the right conclusions will be made and we will keep working together on improving safety for our drivers and for all the marshals on the tracks worldwide.”

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