Sebastien Buemi was dealt a hammer blow in his preparation for the Chinese GP as a mechanical fault led to him being involved in a 300kph crash.

As the Swiss driver approached turn fourteen the front wheels flew from the car, sending the uncontrollable STR5 bullet into the fence.

The youthful duo of Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari, who picked up his first points at the Malaysian GP a fortnight ago, have again established themselves in the midfield, going 11^th (Alguersuari) and 17^th (Buemi) fastest.

For Buemi the weekend will be overshadowed by the frightful looking incident, which he fortunately walked away from unhurt, but by finishing Friday in eleventh position, Alguersuari will carry some confidence into Saturday’s qualifying session.

“The track is really wide there, with a lot of run-off space. It looked quite spectacular, but from inside the car, it was not so big,” he said. “I just lost both wheels.”

“Afterwards, for me, it took a bit of time to understand what happened, but it was not too bad. Something broke. It happens. We’ve changed the car and it will be fine to go out again,” he added.

“As a driver, I just don’t think about it any more.”

Buemi suffered no injuries from the collision, and will be ok to take to the track for qualifying tomorrow, and will be looking to regain his place as the first driver in the team, following his younger counterpart outperforming him so far in 2010. It will prove no easy task now he’s missed a considerable amount of Friday’s practice.

Alguersuari’s two points in Sepang have clearly spurred on the Spaniard, and only Adrian Sutil in the more-established Force India team finished higher, outside the leading pack. However, Alguersuari has so far disappointed in qualifying, with a season high of eleventh, despite the circumstances in Malaysia, where he failed to perform despite being out on a dry track early.

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