A black day in Suzuka

Typhoon be damned, the race went ahead in conditions that were sometimes just fine for racing F1 cars and sometimes debatably not.  Then a tragedy occurred.

First Adrian Sutil had an accident, running his Sauber off the wet track at the Dunlop Curve and slamming into a retaining wall.  Sutil was uninjured and local yellow flags were deployed to slow things down while one of the many on-site tractors drove onto the run-off area so it could tow away Sutil's car (the idea being that the tractors are equipped with cranes designed pick up a disabled car and carry it back behind the safety walls).

Unfortunately on the next lap, while the grounds crew was still dealing with Sutil's car, Jules Bianchi went off the track at exactly the same spot and instead of hitting the same energy-absorbing safety wall that Sutil did, Bianchi's car hit the tractor in what was a serious enough manner that they wouldn't show it on television.

Which is never a good sign.

The weather was so bad that the med-evac helicopter couldn't fly so they took the unconscious Bianchi to the hospital via ambulance.  Cranial surgery was performed.  No further word.

Very upsetting.