Premat questions racing in 'insane' conditions

Alex Premat is adamant that today’s Surfers Paradise opener should have been started behind a Safety Car, describing the lack of early visibility as ‘insane’.

The Frenchman started 12th aboard Scott McLaughlin’s Shell Ford and had dropped to 17th before spinning at Turn 11 on lap five.

He had complained on his team radio just prior to the incident that the Safety Car needed to be called due to the lack of visibility.

Only one car had started with its primary driver despite the conditions, which marked the first wet running of the weekend for the co-drivers.

Officials elected to give drivers two warm-up laps to assess the circuit, before a regular standing start took place.

“I really feel Supercar needs to review their basics because in these kinds of conditions, when you’re in a group of 26 cars, it was just insane,” Premat told Supercars.com post-race.

“On the front and back straights you couldn’t see anything further ahead of you than about five metres, so it was just going by guess.

“It was totally insane. I’ve done GP2, DTM, sportscars and I’ve never seen anything as bad as that was.

“People say that European people are [complaining], or whatever, but no, this was really bad conditions to start like this.

“I’ve never felt as scared in a car in all my life. You are doing 230km/h seeing only the rain light of the car ahead.”

Aside from Premat, the first stint was devoid of major incidents, with the race’s one and only Safety Car not coming until lap 56 when a tyre bundle was knocked onto the circuit at the back chicane.

Premat had been behind Karl Reindler and Richard Muscat when he spun, with the two Holdens running deep into the corner before propping to avoid the wall.

, just like Bathurst.

“We’re just soldiering on and hopefully we can get some more pace back in the car tomorrow when it dries out.”