Russian driver's father arrested

One Russian driver's chances of making his F1 debut next year have taken a hit.

At Sochi, Formula 2 driver Artem Markelov admitted his chances of a 2019 race seat - ostensibly with Williams - was "50-50".

"I will find out in a month and a half," he said.

But those hopes have taken a serious hit.

During the race weekend, Markelov's wealthy father Valery was arrested by Russian authorities and detained.

Markelov senior, heading a large consortium linked to Russian Railways, is accused of bribing a government official to the tune of 2 billion rubles (US $30m).

"We are talking about one of the top officials of Russian Railways," a source told the Russian news agency Rosbalt.

Artem Markelov, 24, contested the Friday practice session for Renault in Russia last weekend.

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Leopold

Leopold Pleijsier founded F1-Fansite.com in 2001 and has followed Formula 1 since the early 1980s. He writes about daily F1 news, race weekends, drivers and the sport’s history.

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