Explosion at Williams - pictures

As the Williams team celebrated their first win since the Brazilian Grand Prix in 2004, as Pastor Maldonado took a brilliant victory ahead of Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen, a violent fire broke out in the Williams garage.

For now there are several opposing reports, some are claiming an explosion took place, this is not confirmed, but a fire apparently started on Bruno Senna´s KERS unit. Firefighters and members of several other teams rushed to the Williams garage to help extinguishing the fire, and I have received reports that one Force India team member has been taken to hospital. One person is reported to have sustained burns on his legs, this could be the Force India team member, others are being treated at the circuit´s medical centre for smoke inhalation.

Frank Williams and other members reported a huge fireball and thick billowing smoke covering most fo the pit area. The fire is out and emergency services have taken control of the incident.

UPDATE:

I have now received confirmation that the KERS unit of Senna´s car was not responsible for the fire, instead some fuel canisters located behind the partition in the back of the garage, caught fire. There are reports of a mechanic who has suffered a broken wrist and one team member from the Force India crew was treated for smoke inhalation, but is ok. The team was in the process of packing up shop, and there were, as always, a lot of items scattered around the area.

One person was airlifted to a nearby hospital with serious burns and five others were treated in a local hospital for smoke inhalation. Ten more people were treated at the circuit medical centre.

Caterham has issued a short statement which verified that four of its members had been treated in the medical centre, we do not know yet how serious it is. A further statement from the Caterham team will be issued later Sunday evening.

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