Jules Bianchi has died, nine months after he suffered severe head injuries in a crash at the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix.
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The 25-year-old had been in a coma since the crash in October’s race last year, and he has sadly lost the battle to regain consciousness.
“Jules fought right to the very end, as he always did, but today his battle came to an end,” his family said.
Bianchi is the first F1 driver to die from injuries sustained in a Grand Prix since Ayrton Senna was killed at Imola in 1994.
After making his debut with Marussia in 2013, Bianchi was tipped as a future star after initially impressing as a member of the Ferrari young driver academy.
Tributes were paid by his fellow drivers on Twitter, with the likes of Jenson Button, Romain Grosjean and Valtteri Bottas all commenting.
“Last night we lost a truly great guy and a real fighter. RIP Jules, my sincerest condolences to his family and friends,” Button noted.
Bianchi’s fatal crash occurred as he hit the recovery vehicle which was attending to Adrian Sutil after he collided with the tyre barriers on lap 43 of the Grand Prix.
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