Alpine team principal Oliver Oakes has shared the reason for Jack Doohan’s massive crash at the start of the second practice session at Suzuka.

The Australian driver was less than 10 minutes into his Japanese Grand Prix weekend – on account of reserve driver Ryo Hirakawa deputising for him in FP1 – when his Alpine slammed into the wall on the outside of Turn 1.

It was initially difficult to assess what provoked the sudden spin off the circuit, but Oakes has since confirmed that it was a mistake on Doohan’s part.

Unusually, the entrance to the first corner is flat out to begin with, meaning the driver must disengage DRS manually, something the 22-year-old did not do. It was an oversight responsible for the high-speed impact with the barriers.

“We are all relieved to see Jack walk away from his incident in free practice 2 and glad to see he is OK after his precautionary checks,” Oakes said before explaining that driver error was to blame for Doohan’s heavy shunt.

“It was a misjudgement of not closing the DRS into Turn 1. It is something to learn from and I know Jack and the team will be ready for tomorrow.

“His crew will work hard to have the car prepared after the damage. From a performance point of view today, there are some things for us to work on.”

Doohan vows to ‘learn’ from mistake

The team had previously confirmed to RacingNews365 that Doohan did not suffer a concussion, despite the magnitude of the accident.

Alpine will, however, have to work around the clock to get his car ready for FP3 and qualifying on Saturday. Doohan, meanwhile, has committed to not making the same error again.

“First of all, I am OK after the incident,” he confirmed. “It was a heavy one, something that caught me by surprise, and I will learn from it.

“I know the team has a lot of work ahead to repair the car going into tomorrow, so thanks in advance to them for their efforts. My focus is on tomorrow where we will have free practice 3 to get ready for qualifying.”

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