Jack Doohan refused to answer Craig Slater's question after the Sky Sports F1 reporter asked the Australian racer about his FP2 crash at the Japanese Grand Prix. The Alpine driver suffered a high-speed crash at Turn One in FP2 on Friday after neglecting to turn off the DRS at the end of the straight. This sparked rumours that Doohan had practiced in the simulator.

After suffering a Q1 exit in qualifying on Saturday, Slater asked Doohan about this in the media pen. "To be honest, I would prefer not to touch on that and just sort of put that in the past and head forward tomorrow, with no disrespect. Thank you very much, though."

Alpine team principal Oliver Oakes explained the cause of the crash in the team principals' press conference. “We are all relieved to see Jack walk away from his incident in Free Practice Two and glad to see he is okay after his precautionary checks,” he said.

“It was a misjudgement of not closing the DRS into Turn One. It is something to learn from, and I know Jack and the team will be ready for tomorrow. His crew will work hard to have the car prepared after the damage.”

Doohan's interview arrived during a red flag period in qualifying. Despite extensive efforts from track marshals to prevent the issue by dumping water on the run-off, a grass fire broke out on the inside of the 130R corner.

The grass fires caused chaos during the free practice sessions. After incidents for Doohan and Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso, two separate blazes triggered red flags in FP2, and the issue continued in FP3 on Saturday morning.

Meanwhile, Max Verstappen upset the odds to put his Red Bull on pole thanks to a record-breaking lap ahead of title rival Lando Norris of McLaren.

It's set to be some day tomorrow as the two go head-to-head for victory at the Japanese Grand Prix, with Norris' team-mate Oscar Piastri a place further behind in third.