The dash to beat the ash

Posted on 16/04/2010

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Several teams had to make desperate dashes to get their personnel and some equipment to Shanghai as many European airports shut down following the Icelandic volcanic eruption.

Both McLaren and Red Bull faced problems when flights from the UK were scrapped on Thursday, and in both cases individuals managed to get to Paris and fly from there before France too closed many of its airports.

"We had people coming yesterday with bits but they couldn't fly," McLaren’s Martin Whitmarsh said. "It was quite a miraculous story in fact as someone then jumped in a car and drove five hours to Paris to catch an 11pm flight last night. That flight was brought forward to 10pm but then took off at 9.50pm, but he made the flight and the airport was shut at 10pm.”

It was the same for Red Bull who had six boxes of parts being brought out, including spares for the front of Mark Webber’s car.