Franco Colapinto's remarkable Q3 appearance at Baku, where he out-qualified his teammate Alex Albon, was nearly derailed before it even started.
The 21-year-old Argentine, who replaced Logan Sargeant for the remainder of 2024 at Williams, even earned praise from triple world champion Max Verstappen following his impressive performance on Saturday.
However, a day earlier, his participation in the Azerbaijan GP was almost jeopardised.
"I cut my ear doing neck exercises five minutes before FP1," the rookie explained. "The rubber came loose and hit me. I went deaf and started bleeding."
"Everything opened up and they wanted to give me stitches five minutes before FP1," he recounted with a laugh to Spanish reporters. "I told them, 'What do you mean you're going to stitch me up? I have to put my helmet on!'"
"Then I crashed and went to the medical centre, and when I took off my balaclava, it had blood on it. They said, 'You're not fit to race, are you?'"
"After a bit of explanation, we reached an agreement and I was able to race," Colapinto chuckled again.
