On the helicopter thing, apparently it was seen taking off, just not with Jules in it. According to someone on Autosport the pressure changes of flying can worsen brain injuries, and it was this that killed Mark Donohue. So presumably that's why Jules has been taken by ambulance.
Gary Hartstein has said this isn't true re: pressure changes, but has confirmed that the helicopter was clear to take off - it was probably because an ambulance gave them more prep time that they took that route.
EDIT: BBC live text is wrapping up. Not surprised really given they can't actually *do* anything until we hear more from the hospital.
They can't really bring it forward, people have already made plans for that start time, booking flights etc. Apparently people attending the race are allotted a specific train time as well, it's not like they can just hop on an earlier train. And I'd have been fuming to wake up at 6:30 and find the race had already finished. They have to stop shifting grand prix start times to suit European timezones though. If this had been starting at 5am like it was supposed to they'd have had some leeway before sunset to shift the race back a couple of hours if necessary. It's also ridiculous the number of races we have now which a finishing in gloomy conditions because they're being held late in the afternoon. It's happened so many times in the last five years or so.
Hartstein says a lot of things. Not really surprised to hear him piping up at this.
Hartstein says a lot of things. Not really surprised to hear him piping up at this.
Without knowing when those discussions took place it's hard to say. For sure if they were within the last 24/48hrs then it's a very tricky call. But what with there being talk of holding the race Saturday afternoon, perhaps the talks took place earlier? I don't know how long this typhoon has been on the radar, but with 4-5 days notice I would have thought there would have been potential to shift the race a bit. Completely agree about late afternoon starts though. There's a 4 hour window for completing grand prix, so you'd think races should be forced to start early enough that the full 4 hours is usable. It doesn't seem right that the race time was 1hr50 and we were finishing in gloom because of a slightly delayed start.
All the drivers are alongside Jules in hospital apparently.


This site says the operation is complete and Jules is no longer on life support.
http://www.lequipe.fr/info-continue/bianchi/97363
If true , then good news . Just seems a bit quick to me .
From what I'm hearing L'Equipe are apparently very reliable (I don't know that much about them myself) and were the first people to report on him having the surgery in the first place. Granted I'll still wait for someone like Autosport to confirm it in any case.
No no I'm not doubting you , hope it'd true . It just seems sudden , but then he is a French driver and it's a French paper maybe they had someone close to the fia press .