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F1 mourns as Bianchi laid to rest
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RACE helmet perched on his coffin, Jules Bianchi was mourned yesterday as a “humble” winner in a Formula One career cut short in the sport’s first deadly crash in more than 20 years.
Tributes mounted for the French driver, who died on Friday after nine months in a coma following the crash during last year’s Japanese Grand Prix.
“He was so natural, humble. F1 is a complicated profession, often you can lose touch with reality — he always knew how to remain humble, nice with everybody and that made him different from the others,” said his manager, Nicolas Todt, the son of FIA President Jean Todt.
Born into the sport, Bianchi competed in 34 races over the 2013 and 2014 seasons, scoring the first ever championship points for Manor — then known as Marussia — by finishing ninth at last year’s Monaco GP. Bianchi had been in a coma since the October 5 accident, in which he collided at high speed with a mobile crane that was picking up another crashed car.
Bianchi’s family had already lost a member in a crash. In 1969, his great-uncle Lucien died in an accident during testing at the Le Mans race track when he crashed his Alfa Romeo into a post, a year after winning the prestigious endurance race. His grandfather, Mauro, also raced.
“He wrote the history of F1,” French driver Jean-Eric Vergne said after the funeral. “(Bianchi) has contributed enormously and will watch over us all.”
Solemn applause resonated as the family took the casket inside Cathedrale Sainte Reparate in Nice’s historic old town, then church bells sounded.
Two giant portraits of Bianchi in full racing gear adorned the walls either side of the cathedral’s main entrance.
Bianchi was the first driver to die of injuries sustained in an F1 race since Ayrton Senna died at the 1994 San Marino GP.
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