Nyck de Vries was so knackered after his first Formula One debut, at the Italian Grand Prix, that he needed to be helped out of the car by Williams teammates.
De Vries is primarily a test driver for Mercedes, McLaren and Williams, having previously signed to McLaren's young driver programme.
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Earlier in the year the Dutch driver was rumoured to be of interest to Mercedes to fill in for Lewis Hamilton, after the seven time world champion's troubles with back pain at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
In the end, De Vries wasn't needed by the Silver Arrows for a race, but last weekend he got a last minute call up from Williams instead.
Alex Albon came down with appendicitis and had to miss the race at Monza, so De Vries was a late call up to take the seat from the Thai driver for the weekend.
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The 27-year-old put in a hell of a performance as well, getting into Q2 in qualifying on Saturday, way out performing teammate Nicholas Latifi.
Penalties to others then bumped De Vries up the grid and he actually started the race eighth, but with several faster cars behind him he wouldn't have been expected to finish that high up.
Whilst he didn't manage to keep eighth, he only dropped back one place to ninth, holding off Alfa Romeo's Zhou Guanyu in a really interesting battle.
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Footage from his Williams car after the race showed that he was so tired by the physical exhaustion of the race that he needed to call for help from his team to lift him out of the car.
The highlight being the moment Pierre Gasly comes over, De Vries was probably hoping he'd help out, but he was just there to congratulate him on the race.
The points finish for De Vries means he already has more points than Latifi, despite only driving in one race to date, no exactly a ringing endorsement of the Williams' driver.
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Further up the pack, the race in Italy ended in controversial circumstances, or at least they were made out to be by a certain sect of fans.
The race ended behind the safety car, after Daniel Ricciardo had to park up with just a couple of laps to go, meaning Max Verstappen meandered to the win.
Lewis Hamilton fans were pointing out that the finish is exactly what should have happened at the end of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, which would have won him the title.
The sentiment was doubled by the end of the F3 season, taking place at Monza, where a race was back tracked to the final lap before the safety car was deployed.
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Again, had that happened in the Middle East last december then Hamilton would have been an eight time champion.
Featured Image Credit: F1Topics: Formula 1
