Goethe relieved bizarre fire extinguisher incident didn’t cost him Macau GP front row

Red Bull Junior Oliver Goethe admits he “got away with” accidentally setting his fire extinguisher off when battling for Macau Grand Prix pole.

While it was a chaotic qualifying session for all the Formula Regional World Cup drivers on Friday, when seven red flags followed five stoppages the previous day, it was even more eventful for Goethe.

He accidentally set off his extinguisher during the third of the red flags, dousing both himself and his car with foam.

It left his MP Motorsport crew to hurriedly clean his car, his race seat, Goethe’s overalls and replace the fire extinguisher.

The German was on provisional pole at the time and feared his qualifying session would be over, but further delays amid a clean-up operation to remove fluid spilt on the Guia track gave the MP mechanics sufficient time to allow Goethe to rejoin the fray.

He ultimately lost out on pole by just 0.014 seconds but was relieved not to have slipped further down the order, which could have been the case without the subsequent red flags.

Oliver Goethe, MP Motorsport

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

“It was very stressful – I didn’t know, once it happened, whether my qualifying was over,” Goethe told Motorsport.com. 

“But, thankfully, there was that long red flag and other red flags that gave us time to fix everything, replace everything. 

“It was stressful but it didn’t change anything in the end. 

“At least it didn’t happen on track or during the race or at the end of qualifying when the times were improving so much. I got away with it in the end!”

Goethe, who had earlier set the pace in Thursday’s wet first practice and opening qualifying session, was also relieved to have avoided the incidents that befell some of his rivals during what he described as a “really crazy” session.

“So much went on, there was rain, so many red flags, it was the first time pushing in the dry, the fire extinguisher for me,” he said. “It was just chaotic but in the end managed to get a good lap.”

R-ace GP’s McLaren junior Ugochukwu echoed those sentiments, describing it as the “most intense qualifying session I’ve ever had”.