Kazuki Nakajima badly hurt in Spa Free Practice Crash

Heavy rain, Kazuki Nakajima in hospital and best times for Porsche prototypes are the main headlines from the two free practice sessions for 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps held today.

The opening practice for the second round of the World Endurance Championship took place despite heavy rains. Unfortunately, the harsh weather conditions led to an accident involving Toyota TS040 Hybrid driver Kazuki Nakajima, who hit the back of a slow-moving No.8 Audi R18 e-tron quattro on the fast Kemmel Straight.

The impact damaged the monocoque but more significantly caused injury to Kazuki. After complaining of back pain immediately after the incident, he was assessed at the circuit medical centre then transferred to hospital in Verviers for precautionary checks. Unfortunately, those checks have revealed a fractured vertebra. Kazuki will remain in hospital for treatment and will not racing this weekend.

The No.1 Toyota will therefore be driven by World Champions Anthony Davidson and Sébastien Buemi this weekend, but the pair was unable to participate in second practice, due to the time required to change the monocoque.

In the first practice session, the fastest was Porsche 919 Hybrid No.18 (Dumas, Jani, Lieb) with lap time 2.16.616. In the second wet session Porsche No.19 (Bamber, Hulkenberg, Tandy) set the fastest time (2.25.495), followed by sister car No.17 in P2.

Third Free Practice follow on Friday (14.00-15.00) prior to qualifying (18.35-19.00), while the race begins on Saturday at 14.30.