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BARCELONA — While Diego Costa stuttered before getting his first goal for Spain against Luxembourg on Sunday, youngster Paco Alcacer is leading from the front for the new-look team in Euro 2016 qualifying.

The 21-year-old Valencia striker scored on his competitive debut for Spain against Macedonia last month and now has three goals in as many qualifying fixtures, showing the way for the Chelsea hitman, who took seven games to get off the mark.

Alcacer even had words of encouragement after Costa, who bagged 36 goals for Atletico Madrid last season, was unable to score in the second qualifying match against Slovakia, which Spain surprisingly lost.

He said the goals would finally come for Costa and though Alcacer scored as a late substitute in Zilina, he could not do enough to prevent the 2-1 defeat.

That goal earned him a starting place alongside Costa against Luxembourg and he got the second in the 4-0 victory that means Spain have two wins and a defeat in Group C.

“If I am here, it is because I am doing well for my club and when you have a chance you have to take full advantage,” Alcacer told reporters.

“You can’t forget that strikers are dependent on their teammates as well for their passes.”

Costa, who has nine goals in nine games for Chelsea, missed a hatful of chances in the first half and was noticeably anxious in front of goal but he finally took advantage of Luxembourg’s slack defending after the interval.

“Everyone knows what a great player Diego is and when I am on a run when the goals don’t go in, I need my teammates to help me,” Alcacer added.

“When I got my goal, I tried to lift him as much as I could.”

New generation

Manchester City’s David Silva crowned one of his best Spain performances for some time with the opening goal but it was generally a night that belonged to the new generation.

Spain is looking to win its third successive European Championship in 2016 and it finished Sunday’s match with six players who have yet to appear at a senior international tournament.

The six, along with Koke, who did play at this year’s World Cup, are part of the generation which have won the past two under-21 European Championships, meaning there is plenty of promise following the disappointment in Brazil.

Spain failed to get out of the group stage in the World Cup and while it prompted the retirement of veterans Xavi, Xabi Alonso and David Villa, it has now opened the door to these players with calibre.

“We are showing that we are a good generation,” Alcacer continued.

It was an especially notable night for Manchester United’s David de Gea, who ousted captain Iker Casillas in goal and kept a clean sheet on his competitive debut.

“He didn’t have much to do but he did ensure that the team felt confident with him behind. The national team has plenty of quality at the back with De Gea, Casillas and Kiko Casilla,” Alcacer added.

BERLIN — World champions Germany will be desperate to bounce back with home win over Ireland next week to recover from a shock 2-0 defeat to Poland in their Euro 2016 qualifier on Saturday but in order to achieve that, they need to start scoring goals.

The Germans wasted a plethora of golden opportunities in Warsaw before slumping to their first ever loss to Poland, a stunning defeat that sent them tumbling down to third spot in qualifying Group D.

Failing to score is not a new problem for Germany, who encountered the issue as recently as this summer’s World Cup with coach Joachim Loew switching his formation midway through the tournament to promote Miroslav Klose as a lone striker.

The results were devastating for their opponents as the Germans raced to a fourth World Cup triumph.

But Klose cannot add to his record goal tally for Germany, having retired after the World Cup, and Loew has to figure out how his team can make their total domination around the rest of the pitch count in front of goal.

“We have to look ahead to Tuesday and Ireland and make sure we show a good reaction,” said Loew, who only had six players in his line-up from the side that started the World Cup final in July.

“We only played on one goal but could not score,” he said.

Injury absences

It would be far too premature to draw any conclusions on the state of the new German team given the large number of injury absences, including Bastian Schweinsteiger, Mesut Ozil and Marco Reus to name but a few.

The retirements of former captain Philipp Lahm, Klose and Per Mertesacker have also robbed the team of much-needed experience with 25-year-old Thomas Mueller being the most-capped player in the starting lineup on Saturday.

Loew started without an out-and-out striker on Saturday and with attacking midfielder Mueller up front. It was a similar situation in the early stages of the World Cup.

Newcomer Karim Bellarabi added plenty of pace down the flanks but failed to score from several good chances he carved out for himself. Mario Goetze, who also plays as an occasional forward, was equally as ineffective.

With only one natural forward, Borussia Moenchengladbach’s Max Kruse, in the squad but on the bench on Saturday, Loew will have to come up with a more effective plan if they are to beat Ireland in Gelsenkirchen.

“We just failed to score and given the amount of chances we had it was a joke,” Germany defender Mats Hummels lamented.

With three points from two qualifiers so far, Germany are well aware this is a long campaign and a maiden defeat to Poland, however damaging to their pride, is not a total disaster.

“It was just not our day,” Goetze said. “On Tuesday, we will win, get the three points and the table will look a lot different.” 

SOCHI, Russia — Lewis Hamilton cruised to victory in the inaugural Russian Grand Prix on Sunday, leading a 1-2 finish for Mercedes that clinched its first Formula One constructors’ title and stretched his lead in the championship.

Nico Rosberg placed second despite having to pit early in the race but now trails his teammate by 17 points in the drivers’ standings, with three races remaining.

Hamilton, who was fastest in practice and qualifying, won his fourth straight race and his ninth of the season. He was presented the winner’s trophy by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who had pushed for his country to have a Formula One race.

“We’ve had an amazing week, Russia’s been so good to me,” Hamilton said from the podium.

“It was kind of surreal for the president to be presenting the award,” he added later.

The British driver started from pole but lost the lead when Rosberg beat him to the first corner. But Rosberg had to brake hard, ruined his tires, cut a corner and was then told by his team to let Hamilton back into the lead because he had gained an unfair advantage.

Rosberg replied: “I have to box because of the vibrations.”

After pitting to change tires, he was told by the team he’d have to go the rest of the race on that set.

Hamilton took the flag 13.6 seconds ahead of Rosberg. Valtteri Bottas was third in a Williams, 17.4 seconds back.

“I was looking after the tyres, managing the fuel, it was pretty straight-forward,” Hamilton said. “I really enjoyed the race and Russia has been one of my favourite races.”

Hamilton became only the fourth driver in Formula One history to win nine races in a season. He equaled Nigel Mansell’s record of 31 victories for a British driver. The other three with nine or more wins in a season were Michael Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel and Mansell.

Rosberg said he was angry at himself for making the mistake.

“It was unnecessary. I braked too hard, too late. The tyres were square. I thought that was the end of the day for me,” the German said. “But the other half of me is so happy for the team, we are dominating the sport now.”

Bottas kept close to Hamilton until he began to lose pace about a third into the race.

“The rear tyres started to lose pace and then Nico got me, I didn’t expect him to come from inside in turn one,” the Finn said.

A ceremony to open the circuit included Cossack dancers with sabers and javelins and Russian Air Force jets drawing hearts in the sunny sky with their jet streams.

The Sochi Autodrom in this Black Sea resort was built around the Olympic Park used in February during the Winter Games, another project personally supported by Putin.

Also before the race, the drivers united to send a message of support to their injured colleague Jules Bianchi, who is fighting for his life following an accident at the Japanese Grand Prix one week ago.

The 21 drivers gathered together on the grid shortly before the start, and were joined by Formula One chief Bernie Ecclestone and international federation president Jean Todt.

They stood behind the words “Jules, we are all supporting you” inscribed into the grid. 

Ferrari honours injured driver 

The entire Ferrari team has sent a message of encouragement to Formula One driver Jules Bianchi, who is fighting for his life following an accident at the Japanese Grand Prix one week ago.

The two drivers, Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen, flanked team chief Alberto Mattiacci, behind a sign reading “Forza Jules” (Go Jules).

The gesture came on Sunday, shortly before the inaugural Russian Grand Prix.

Bianchi, a Frenchman, drives for Marussia but is a member of Ferrari’s young drivers academy.

Ecclestone later welcomed Putin as the Russian president arrived at the circuit about one hour into the race.

Jenson Button and Kevin Magnusson came in fourth and fifth, respectively, in the two McLarens. Fernando Alonso was sixth in his Ferrari, with Daniel Ricciado and four-time defending champion Sebastian Vettel following in their Red Bulls. The Red Bull team surrendered the constructors’ title.

“Congratulations to Mercedes on the title, they deserve it,” Vettel said. Vettel is leaving Red Bull at the end of the season but has not announced his new team.

The ninth 1-2 for Mercedes this season is one short of McLaren’s 1988 record.

“It’s been a dominant season by them, so hats off to them,” Ricciardo said.

There are 100 points at stake in the last three races of the season — in the United States, Brazil and the double-pointer Abu Dhabi.

SOCHI, Russia — Formula One leader Lewis Hamilton was fastest in Saturday’s final practice for the inaugural Russian Grand Prix as Mercedes continued to dominate a weekend likely to seal the constructors’ championship.

Hamilton, who has a 10-point advantage over German teammate Nico Rosberg after winning the last three races, produced the fastest lap yet of the new Sochi circuit with a best time of 1 minute, 38.726 seconds.

The 2008 champion spun late in the session at the penultimate corner, but escaped without damage.

“It was a tremendous lap, he seems to extract the maximum out of the car at the moment,” Mercedes motorsport head Toto Wolff said.

“Somehow, Lewis seem to nail it on first lap, Nico seems to struggle a bit more, but this is just practice,” the German told the BBC.

Rosberg was second fastest, 0.290 slower, on a warm and bright morning at the 5.8km track that snakes around the Black Sea resort’s imposing Olympic Park venues used for this year’s Winter Games.

Hamilton, chasing his ninth win of the season on Sunday, was also fastest on Friday, although Rosberg was quicker in the morning.

Finland’s Valtteri Bottas was third for Williams in a session that was briefly halted after the McLaren of Danish rookie Kevin Magnussen stopped on track with a gearbox problem that will bring a five-place grid penalty.

Red Bull’s Australian Daniel Ricciardo, the only driver other than the Mercedes duo to win this season, was fourth fastest.

Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado failed to set a lap time with mechanics working on his Lotus.

Safety 

Formula One is planning to impose automatic speed limits as part of safety measures to prevent any recurrence of the sort of accident that has left French driver Jules Bianchi fighting for his life in Japan.

Race director Charlie Whiting told reporters at the Russian Grand Prix that he would meet teams on Saturday to discuss the proposals.

They included fitting “skirts” to recovery vehicles, the cranes and tractors used to remove stricken cars, to protect against the type of impact suffered by Bianchi when he crashed into one at Suzuka last Sunday.

The 25-year-old Marussia driver remains in a critical but stable condition in hospital after surgery for a severe brain injury.

Whiting showed footage of the crash to reporters at a lengthy briefing conducted with International Automobile Federation (FIA) President Jean Todt and Formula One medical officers.

The images showed marshals waving double yellow flags, the most extreme measure before a safety car is introduced, after Adrian Sutil had crashed his Sauber a lap before Bianchi lost control at the same place on the wet track.

Waved yellow flags mean a driver must slow and be prepared to stop if necessary.

Whiting said Bianchi had slowed as required, without divulging by how much, and indicated some had shed less speed than others.

He had come to the conclusion, he added, that it was “probably better to take the decision to slow down away from the drivers” in future.

Whiting indicated this could be done through what amounted to a virtual safety car — using the existing GPS-controlled systems to slow the entire field without actually bringing the safety car onto the track.

In more extreme circumstances the safety car would be deployed as usual. 

Complete clarity 

“I think there are some things to learn,” said Whiting of the Suzuka accident. “We want to engage with all the teams and drivers to make sure we come up with good, sound and well thought through ideas.”

Whiting said they would seek “a way of trying to impose for want of a better expression a speed limit. It probably won’t be a speed limit as such but there will be I believe a way of controlling speed with complete certainty and complete clarity”.

He added that it was “highly unlikely” anything could be introduced this weekend.

“We have to ensure it works the same way on all the cars,” explained Whiting. “We will be exercising extreme caution as always.”

The Briton also clarified the events at Suzuka, from the moment the tractor was deployed to Bianchi being rushed in an ambulance with a police escort to hospital.

Whiting said the decision to bring the tractor on had been taken by race control and they had not considered it necessary to deploy the safety car immediately.

There was no immediate evidence of any mechanical fault being to blame for Bianchi losing control.

Whiting dismissed a post-race assertion by Brazilian Felipe Massa that the Williams driver had been screaming for the race to be stopped before the crash as the rain fell and the light faded.

He said Massa had merely informed the team that track conditions were getting worse.

Todt, a former Ferrari team principal, said lessons had to be learned “and we will because we cannot be faced with such a situation again. Each life is very important”.

Bianchi’s manager is Todt’s son Nicolas and the FIA president said he had himself known him since the driver was 15.

“My son believed, believes, a lot in Jules,” he said. “It has been very tough, it is very tough.”

AMMAN — The U-16 girls football team headed to Bangladesh on Saturday to play Group B Asian qualifiers that act as a qualifying tournament for the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) finals and U-17 Women’s World Cup.

After Qatar withdrew from the event, Jordan will now start its matches on October 15 when it faces hosts Bangladesh before playing the UAE, Iran and India for the sole qualifying slot from the group. 

In 2013, the U-16 squad was eliminated from the AFC finals after qualifying for the first time. This time, the team’s coach Manar Freij is confident of the line-up’s readiness. “We know we have tough opponents but are optimistic of winning the group and will aim for a win in all our matches,” she was quoted by the local media ahead of the team’s departure.

The U-16 team drew its U-19 counterpart 1-1 in two matches this week. The squad had a training camp in Germany where they played a series of friendlies after a similar camp in Alexandria, Egypt.

The U-19 women’s team is also preparing for Group A Asian Championship qualifiers which will be held in Amman November 3-9
where it will face India, Lebanon and Uzbekistan. The squad hopes to qualify for the second time after Jordan was the first Arab team to play in the 3rd AFC U-19 Women’s Championship finals in 2007. 

The senior women’s team is back home after it exited Round 1 of the Asian Games — tying Taiwan 2-2, losing to China 5-0 and suffering a crushing 12-0 defeat to Japan. Earlier this year, they had a similar early exit at their first Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Women’s 2014 Asian Cup where they were also the only Arab team to have ever qualified.

Jordan will host the 2016 U-17 Women’s World Cup and is now gearing up to implement executive plans to prepare four stadiums as well as 16 practice fields. Jordan beat bids from Uruguay, South Africa, Ireland and Bahrain. 

AMMAN — The National football team plays its first friendly against Kuwait on Friday in the final phase of preparations for the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) 2015 Asian Cup in Australia. The team will face Kuwait again on October 13 as the two matches are expected to give head coach Ray Wilkins a better idea of the line-up named and amend any gaps in the run up to the Asian Cup. While Wilkins has recalled players who had been out of the last line-up under Egyptian head coach Hossam Hassan, goalie Amer Shafie was again removed after being recalled most likely for disciplinary admin issues. Wilkins added two other goalies to his squad this week underlining the move “was aimed at having a good choice of players for the team’s future and giving promising players a chance to gain more competitive experience”. The coach’s choice and players’ preparedness will now be under scrutiny as Jordan plays two matches against the guest team and also faces the U-23 team on Saturday. The U-23 team has just returned from the Asian Games after an impressive run. In preparation for the two friendlies, Wilkins was quoted by the local media as saying: “Players are expected to give their utmost, and head into the upcoming matches with a competitive spirit and taking on the challenge to win.”

SUZUKA, Japan — French Formula One driver Jules Bianchi suffered a traumatic brain injury in his Japanese Grand Prix crash and remains in a critical but stable condition, his family said.

In a statement issued through his Marussia team on Tuesday, they expressed appreciation for messages of support from around the world and said the 25-year-old’s crash at Suzuka on Sunday had left him with a “diffuse axonal injury”.

Two eminent neurosurgeons — FIA medical commission president Gerard Saillant and Italian professor Alessandro Frati — were also at the Mie General Medical Centre in Yokkaichi after flying from Europe at Ferrari’s request.

“The medical professionals at the hospital are providing the very best treatment and care, and we are grateful for everything they have done for Jules since his accident,” the family said.

“The hospital will continue to monitor and treat Jules, and further medical updates will be provided when appropriate.”

Bianchi aquaplaned off the wet track at speed with his car hitting the rear of a recovery tractor that had been deployed to remove Adrian Sutil’s crashed Sauber.

A Suzuka track spokesman said the crash was down to bad luck rather than poor judgement by race officials.

“Officials raised ‘double yellow flags’ after the accident by Sutil, which means drivers had to slow down to the speed that they can immediately stop, but unfortunately Bianchi’s car aquaplaned right at the time and ran into the accident site, which was bad luck,” said circuit spokesman Masamichi Miyazaki.

“Admittedly, rain was coming and the road was wet, but not heavy enough to halt the race, and I believe the race officials made the same judgement.”

The governing International Automobile Federation (FIA) said president Jean Todt had asked race director Charlie Whiting to carry out a detailed report into the precise circumstances of the accident.

The crash brought a premature end to the race, with winner Lewis Hamilton and the rest of the paddock praying for the likeable Frenchman, who is also a Ferrari test driver. 

Safety procedures 

Former Formula One driver Martin Brundle, now a commentator in Britain, was one of many people involved in the sport who questioned the safety procedures used.

He recalled his own near miss with a crane when racing 20 years ago and queried the need for them to be so close to the track.

“I nearly lost my life against one of them, I just missed it and hit a marshal. I closed my eyes and I thought that was the end,” he was quoted as saying by British media.

“The tractors are just too high and you are sitting down low. I’ve been saying this for a long time.

“You are going into the barrier if you go off there. There’s no way of recovering, you are going too fast.”

Bianchi’s accident was the most serious involving a driver at a grand prix weekend since Brazilian Felipe Massa suffered near-fatal head injuries in Hungary in 2009 after being hit on the helmet by a bouncing spring shed from a car in front.

Massa made a full recovery and was racing for Williams on Sunday.

Despite that, Formula One remains proud of its improved safety record and constantly strives to make cars safer, but acknowledges the sport will always be dangerous.

“We have done so much for safety,” Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone was quoted as saying by British newspaper The Times.

“These days, you see an accident on the track and the driver undoes his safety belt, flips off his steering wheel and jumps out unharmed.

“I’ve always said that if I was going to have an accident, it would be in a Formula One car because they are the safest in the world.

“But things happen and we have to find out the cause. It’s difficult for me to say what happened and it will be for an inquiry to find out exactly what did go on.

“This happened to a young man who is very close to us all and that has caused a terrible shock for everyone. Our thoughts are with him and his family.”

The first “Week of Football” in qualifying for the 2016 European Championship could be a feast of goals for the continent’s major powers.

The second and third rounds of games in each of the nine groups will be spread from Thursday to Tuesday, with UEFA keen on “shining the spotlight on more teams” on the road to France.

For the less-heralded nations, it could simply expose their deficiencies to a wider audience.

Spain, Italy and England all started their qualifying campaigns with wins, and easy-looking upcoming fixtures should ensure they stay on 100 per cent records. Netherlands should also rack up the goals at home against Kazakhstan as it looks to bounce back from an opening-round loss to the Czech Republic.

Things may be tougher, however, for world champion Germany, which visits neighbour Poland, and Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal, which is seeking a win in Denmark to make amends for a surprise opening loss to Albania.

Here are some things to know about the upcoming qualifiers for Euro 2016:

Changing Spain

Spain heads to Slovakia and Luxembourg aiming to hone a more direct style of play more suited to dynamic striker Diego Costa.

Coach Vicente del Bosque wanted to base an attacking game around Costa during the World Cup, but the striker was not fit when he arrived in Brazil after struggling with niggling injuries at Atletico Madrid since April.

The Brazil-born player has been a revelation this season at new club Chelsea, scoring nine goals in his first seven games in the English Premier League.

“Diego Costa wants to vindicate himself and score goals,” Barcelona forward Pedro Rodriguez said. “He is eager to help the squad and is conscious that things haven’t so far worked out as intended.”

Spain, the two-time defending European champion, opened Group C by beating Macedonia 5-1.

Maestro returns

Midfield maestro Andrea Pirlo could return to Italy’s team for the first time since reversing his decision to retire from international football, ahead of matches against Azerbaijan away and Malta at home.

Pirlo said before the World Cup he would quit the national side but changed his mind when former Juventus coach Antonio Conte was confirmed as Italy’s new coach.

“Pirlo was very convinced about his decision,” Juventus and Italy teammate Leonardo Bonucci said. “Thankfully he went back on it. That’s a credit to the coach, too. Conte convinced him with an exciting project, which is what he instilled during his time at Juventus.”

Pirlo, a technically gifted holding midfielder, was called up on Monday to replace the injured Giacomo Bonaventura despite having returned from injury only last weekend for his first match of the season.

Conte has won both of his opening matches in charge 2-0, one of which was against Norway in Group H.

Tests for Germany

Germany coach Joachim Loew considers the matches against Poland and Ireland as “key games” against the only two opponents that have a realistic chance of challenging the world champion for first place in Group D.

Loew’s squad includes 15 World Cup winners and one newcomer, Karim Bellarabi, an attacking midfielder from Bayer Leverkusen. Bellarabi was on loan last season to Eintracht Braunschweig and could not even secure a regular place in the starting 11 on the team that was demoted. But he impressed enough in only seven Bundesliga matches this season that he was picked by Loew and could get his first cap.

Bellarabi got the call partly because Loew is missing regulars through injury, including Bastian Schweinsteiger, Sami Khedira and Marco Reus.

Hiddink hope 

New Netherlands coach Guus Hiddink is still searching for his first win after two matches of his second spell in charge, when his team takes on Kazakhstan at home and Iceland away.

Midfielder Wesley Sneijder believes complacency after its third-place finish at the World Cup may have cost the Netherlands dearly in losing a friendly to Italy and its first Euro 2016 qualifier against the Czechs.

“Maybe subconsciously after the World Cup, we thought it would all just happen for us,” Sneijder told Dutch website Nu.nl. “We played a great World Cup and that led to great transfers for some players. But now we all start at zero again.”

The Netherlands will be without right back Daryl Janmaat (hamstring) but the forward line is strengthened by the return from injury of in-form Bayern Munich winger Arjen Robben.

Elsewhere

England won what is likely to be its toughest match in Group E, away to Switzerland, last month to ease some of the pressure that had been growing on coach Roy Hodgson.

Hodgson should be able to relax when he sends his team out against San Marino and Estonia, with Wayne Rooney available amid a domestic suspension for kicking an opponent.

World Cup quarter-finalist Belgium begins its campaign with games against Andorra and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Portugal plays France in a friendly before travelling to Denmark, with coach Fernando Santos starting an eight-game international touchline ban for misconduct at the World Cup when in charge of Greece.

The top two teams in each group qualify automatically, as does the best third-place finisher. All other teams finishing third go into the play-offs.

AMMAN — A strong finish to Team Jordan’s Asian Games campaign ensured the delegation returned to Amman with two silver and two bronze medals, according to a statement from the Jordan Olympic Committee. And it was the boxing team that stole the show with no less than three medals, including a silver for Odai Al Hindawi in the hugely competitive middleweight category. Team captain and former Olympian Ihab Al Matbouli finished with a bronze medal in the heavyweight section, while young up and comer Obada Al Kasbeh claimed bronze in the lightweight division. Joining the boxers on the medal trail was karate’s Abdulrahman Al Masatfah, who won a silver in the -60kg category. Jordan attended the games in Incheon, South Korea, with a record delegation of 156 athletes, officials and coaches who competed across 12 sports. The conduct of the delegation was widely praised by officials from both the host city and the Olympic Council of Asia.

LONDON — Formula One fans are used to seeing drivers walk away from terrifying accidents but sometimes, in a sport that will always be dangerous however much is done to try and reduce the risks, a hole appears in the safety net.

The crash that left French Formula One driver Jules Bianchi in a critical condition with severe head injures was down to bad luck rather than poor judgement by Japanese Grand Prix race officials, a track spokesman said on Tuesday.

The 25-year-old Marussia driver suffered the life-threatening injury on Sunday when he aquaplaned off a wet track and slammed into the back of a recovery tractor that had been deployed to remove Adrian Sutil’s crashed Sauber.

“Officials raised ‘double yellow flags’ after the accident by Sutil, which means drivers had to slow down to the speed that they can immediately stop, but unfortunately Bianchi’s car aquaplaned right at the time and ran into the accident site, which was bad luck,” Suzuka Circuit spokesman Masamichi Miyazaki said.

“Admittedly, rain was coming and the road was wet, but not heavy enough to halt the race, and I believe the race officials made the same judgement.”

The sport’s governing International Automobile Federation (FIA) said that president Jean Todt has asked FIA race director Charlie Whiting to carry out a detailed report into the precise circumstances of the accident.

The crash brought a premature end to Sunday’s race, with winner Lewis Hamilton and the rest of the paddock turning their attention to the likeable Frenchman, a graduate of Ferrari’s young driver academy.

The Marussia team acknowledged a “huge outpouring of support and affection for Jules and the team at this very difficult time” on Monday and on Tuesday the FIA said he was in a “critical but stable condition” at the Mie Prefectural General Medical Centre in Yokkaichi.

Others have wondered whether the sport can continue as an open cockpit formula, leaving drivers’ heads so exposed to danger.

The use of lumbering recovery vehicles, of the kind that Bianchi crashed into, in exposed runoff areas may also have to be reviewed.

The sport is praying that Bianchi pulls through, as Brazilian Felipe Massa did in Hungary in 2009 when he was hit on the helmet by a bouncing spring shed from another car, and that remains the prime concern.

But when things go wrong there are issues that have to be addressed and the answers may not be easy.

Despite constant efforts to limit dangers, with Formula One now having gone 20 years since the last driver fatality during a race, the possibility of a freak accident or tragic combination of circumstances is ever-present.

Max Mosley, the former International Automobile Federation (FIA) president who was instrumental in pushing through safety improvements following the death of Ayrton Senna in 1994, felt what happened at Suzuka fell into that “freak” category.

“I can’t really fault any of the people involved. The marshals or the race director or any of those people. I think everything was done as it should have been,” he told Sky Sports News television.

“For anybody to get hurt in modern Formula One, several things have to go wrong at once — a little bit like the aviation industry,” he added.

Tractor danger

The FIA said in a statement on Sunday night at Suzuka that the marshals had displayed double waved yellow flags before the corner where Bianchi went off to warn drivers of an earlier incident involving Sauber’s Adrian Sutil.

Double waved yellows are a signal to a driver to slow right down and be prepared to stop.

Whether Bianchi saw those flags in the rain and poor visibility remains an open question, but the facts are that he lost control with the car crossing the runoff area and hitting the rear of the recovery vehicle as it was lifting the Sauber.

No television footage was shown of the impact, but photographs indicated the roll bar had been ripped off.

“After Senna and [Austrian Roland] Ratzenberger were killed in 1994 in one weekend, several other life-threatening incidents and another a fortnight later with [Austrian Karl] Wendlinger, we started a programme of systematic research on all aspects [of safety],” Mosley added.

“Crash helmets, driver protection in the car, rollover bars, fire precautions and so on. That is an ongoing thing.

“In this particular case, I don’t think any of those precautions would have helped because as I understand it, he went in under the tractor. And that’s what caused the danger.”

There has long been concern in Formula One about the use of such tractors and cranes while the race is still going on.

Automatic procedure

Seven times world champion Michael Schumacher, now coping with his own head injury after a skiing accident last year, was lucky to escape serious injury in 2003 when a recovery crane was deployed during a rain-hit Brazilian Grand Prix.

The German’s Ferrari skidded off at the same spot and almost crashed into it, fortunately hitting a tyre wall instead.

In Canada last year, a marshal died after being run over by a mobile crane while hurrying to remove Esteban Gutierrez’s crashed Sauber towards the end of the race in Montreal.”

The alternative to deploying such a vehicle would be to leave a crashed car in a potentially dangerous position, with accompanying risks, or bring out a safety car before the tractor is given the go-ahead.

“There’s pretty much an automatic procedure that as soon as a car goes off, that car becomes a danger to other cars. If another car going off at the same place hits it, the effects are unpredictable. So you want to remove the car as quickly as possible,” said Mosley.

The Briton also defended organisers from those who questioned why Bianchi was taken to hospital by road ambulance rather than in the medical helicopter.

“That’s a medical decision... when you have a head injury, sometimes it’s very dangerous to take somebody up in the air where the pressure drops and things then get worse,” he said.

“We always think that [American Mark] Donohue in 1975 died because he was taken to hospital in a helicopter and had a brain haemorrhage. The doctors will decide whether it is safe or not to take the driver in a helicopter,” he said.