The Istanbul Park Circuit home to the Turkish Grand Prix could be set to pay a heavy price for two dogs having got onto the track during last weekend's GP2 round held there, with one of the strays colliding with Bruno Senna's iSport International machine during the sprint outing on Sunday [see separate story
click here].
The Brazilian had just come over the brow of a hill when the dog appeared, leaving him with only a split-second to react and travelling at around 150mph. Whilst he ran the dog over, he was lucky to escape serious injury himself as the impact shattered his front right suspension.
Welshman Tom Pryce was killed during the 1977 South African Grand Prix at Kyalami when he similarly came over the brow of a hill and hit a marshal running across the circuit carrying a fire extinguisher. Had Senna hit the dog head-on, the consequences could have been unthinkable.
I was following Mike Conway quite closely when he suddenly moved to the right, recounted the shocked 24-year-old nephew of the great
Ayrton Senna, who tragically died in an accident in the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix at Imola. I thought he had a problem, so I went to the left...and that's when I saw the dog for the first time. It ran right, so I went left, but then it turned again, hit my wheel and that was that. I couldn't believe it.
More incredibly still, just a few moments later another dog a larger, Alsatian-type breed also got onto the track but escaped into the infield, bringing back memories of the practice session for the 2004 Brazilian Grand Prix, which had to be stopped when dogs got onto the Interlagos circuit.
Now the
FIA motorsport's world governing body has suggested that sanctions cannot be ruled out at this stage' for a venue that first welcomed
F1 only three years ago and is now owned by the sport's ringmaster
Bernie Ecclestone.
![Bruno Senna - iSport International [pic credit: GP2 Series]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/438565.jpg)
