Felipe Massa is unlikely to race in the Hungarian Grand Prix after being hurt in a high-speed accident during qualifying session two on Saturday.
The Ferrari driver applied his brakes but went head on into a tyre wall at Turn Four after a piece of debris on the track appeared to hit his helmet.
He was treated by medical teams before being airlifted to hospital, as is standard procedure in Formula 1.
Ferrari confirmed that Massa was "stable" following the incident.
He had suffered a cut above his left eye, but a Ferrari spokesman described that as a "superficial" injury.
The incident delayed final qualifying by 20 minutes but Massa - who is provisionally 10th on the grid - took no part.
The 28-year-old - winner of 11 grands prix in his career - went off the Hungaroring track at around 200kph, with reports suggesting the debris had fallen off the rear of compatriot Rubens Barrichello's Brawn GP car.
Barrichello told BBC Sport that he believed a rear bar or rear spring had fallen off - "something broke" - after qualifying in 13th, but made no mention of Massa's crash.
Brawn later confirmed that Barrichello's car was missing a part, or parts of its rear suspension.
Massa's team-mate Kimi Raikkonen said: "Felipe was just very unlucky. It was just an unlucky situation."
The incident comes less than a week after Henry Surtees, 18, was killed in a what was described as a "freak" accident during a Formula Two race at Brands Hatch.
The son of motorsport legend John Surtees was struck by a wheel which flew off a competitor's car.
1 comments:
sad to say i was happy to see massa come off the track.. not being a fan of Ferrari, but seeing the videos and photos of his face after he is pretty lucky to still have his eyes! lucky for him and the sport... wish him look for recovery in time for the next grand prix!
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