Injured, Kazuki Nakajima is out for the 6 Hours of Spa

The weather at Spa-Francorchamps is often unpredictable. This year seems to be no exception as the first free practice sessions took place under heavy rain. This led to a serious accident between two contenders for the world title: while on his out lap, Oliver Jarvis was hit at the end of the Kemmel straight by the Toyota of Kazuki Nakajima, who was coming at full speed.

The force of the impact was very significant as the world champions’ monocoque was damaged. But more importantly, the driver immediately felt severe back pain, prompting the marshals to send him to the nearest hospital. The results were not good as the former F1 driver suffers from a vertebra fracture, as he explains himself: « Unfortunately, the X-rays show I have a fracture in one of my vertebrae. I’m extremely disappointed but there’s nothing I can do about it. I’ll do everything I can to come back as quickly as possible. I can’t say much about the accident. I was on the straight, and all of a sudden, through the spray of water, there was a car in front of me. I didn’t have time to react. »

Under these conditions, the driver is obviously not in a position to race for the rest of the weekend, which means that Anthony Davidson and Sébastien Buemi will both run the race. The Swiss driver then stated: « It’s very unfortunate what happened, and it’s obviously not a good start to the weekend. We all hope Kazuki gets better very soon. We are going to visit him in the hospital to keep him company. It’s really a shame that we had to change the monocoque and therefore missed the second session. So I haven’t done a single lap today. If the race is dry, it won’t be a big loss, but we need to refocus as much as possible and try to achieve the best result possible. »

It’s still too early to know if he will recover in time for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which takes place in mid-June. If his physical condition does not allow him to participate, Kamui Kobayashi could be called up as a reserve driver.