F1 Hungarian Grand Prix 24-26 July 2009

[Turkey]

SKY NEWS
Breaking News

8:49pm UK, Saturday July 25, 2009

Formula One driver Felipe Massa is said to be fighting for his life in hospital following a crash during qualification at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Massa - who drives for Ferrari - was airlifted to hospital in Budapest where officials said he is in a "life-threatening but stable" condition after an operation on a skull fracture.

He was hit by a spring which came off the Brawn GP car driven by fellow Brazilian Rubens Barrichello and then crashed into a tyre wall at 170mph.

"The condition of the driver is serious, but stable," said a spokesman at Budapest's AEK Hospital.

The hospital's chief doctor Peter Bazso added: "At the moment he's under anaesthetic and will be woken up on Sunday."

The 28-year-old Brazilian is winner of 11 Grand Prix and was world championship runner-up in 2008.

Ferrari said that Massa suffered skull damage, cuts to his forehead and brain concussion.

He was hit on the face and was momentarily concussed as his car skewed off the circuit and into the tyre barriers.

The Brawn team confirmed Barrichello's car lost a piece of suspension and on-board video from Massa's Ferrari showed him being struck, losing control and going off the track.

Barrichello said: "My thoughts right now are with Felipe and his family who are really close friends of mine and I hope he is going to be ok and will be fit as soon as possible."

Massa was lifted out of his driver's cockpit after being attended to by medical staff and then taken to the circuit medical centre.

The accident took place shortly before the end of the Q2 mini-session during the hour-long qualifying period in which Massa managed to clock the eighth-fastest time.

 

[Basil Fawlty]

Anyone got the video? I need to see this....

 

[Basil Fawlty]

[yt]z0ltCJXSLuw[/yt]

:thud: unbelievable.

 

[franks brother]

[yt]z0ltCJXSLuw[/yt]

:thud: unbelievable.

there speaking funny

 

[beorhthelm]

fighting for his life? really? he was moving when they had him on the stetcher out of the ambulane, thought it as just concussion.

 

[Turkey]

http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2009/07/the-latest-from-the-track-on-massa/

Felipe Massa has been operated on this evening and is now in an induced coma in the AEK Hospital in Budapest.

An inaccurate report from AP this evening suggested that his condition was life threatening but this is not the case. The operation was successful and he is likely to be woken tomorrow.

Medical estimates of how long he will be out of action vary from two months, to longer. It has been suggested by one doctor here that he may miss the rest of the season. More will be known when the medically induced coma ends and the medics can assess the amount of bruising to the front of the brain.

The 28 year old was hit in the head by a spring which had fallen from the rear suspension of Rubens Barrichello’s Brawn car. He was on a lap heading back to the pits and was four seconds behind Barrichello on the road, when the spring became detached. It bounced down the road for four seconds and hit Massa in the head. He was briefly knocked unconscious and his feet went onto the brake and throttle simultaneously.

The data says that he applied 60bar of pressure to the brake, which is the equivalent of laying his foot on it gently, while the throttle was effectively jammed on.

Ross Brawn tonight explained that the spring was from the third damper and is made of steel and weighs around a kilogramme.

“The damper is still attached but the cap had come off and the spring escaped,” said Brawn. “I don’t know the full details but it was a freak accident.”

Brawn replaced the spring on Jenson Button’s car just in case, but Brawn said that this did not affect the balance of the car for Button’s final qualifying run.

He said that he had never experienced a spring detaching itself in all his years in F1 engineering. He added that he thought that the work done on making helmets safer had been ‘essential’ in this situation.

 

[Turkey]

double post.

 

[Beach Hut]

However safe you try to make a sport like Grand Prix there is no accounting for a freak accident like this.

Get well soon Felipe

 

[beorhthelm]

freak accident doesnt even begin to describe it

 

[JJ McClure]

Hope Felipe makes a full recovery. The Surtees incident seemed like a one in a million at the time, but for a similar thing to happen only a week later is almost unbelievable.

 

[Icy Gull]

Hope Felipe makes a full recovery. The Surtees incident seemed like a one in a million at the time, but for a similar thing to happen only a week later is almost unbelievable.

Really bizarre how things like that happen. Nobody had been killed in F1 for years and then Ratzenberger and Senna were both killed in accidents the same weekend. I'm not sure an F1 driver has died in car since??

 

[Wardy]

Really bizarre how things like that happen. Nobody had been killed in F1 for years and then Ratzenberger and Senna were both killed in accidents the same weekend. I'm not sure an F1 driver has died in car since??

Senna was the last F1 driver to die on the course. The cars are amazingly safe these days. Not sure what could be done to protect against this kind of accident though.

 

[dougdeep]

Massa is now off

 

[The Wizard]

According to SSN, he remains stable after no further complications during the night.

 

[Vatican Citys No.2 Keeper]

Will Ferrari have back-up driver to take Felipe's place or will we be racing with 19 cars today??

 

[itszamora]

Will Ferrari have back-up driver to take Felipe's place or will we be racing with 19 cars today??

19 I'd imagine, as no other driver has qualified for the race.

 

[strings]

19 I'd imagine, as no other driver has qualified for the race.

That is correct.

I'd imagine Luca Badoer, Marc Gene or (unlikely, but he is still contracted to ferrari...) a certain Michael Schumacher will be driving for the remained of the season - early reports are suggesting Massa will be out for at least 2 months, depending on the bruising to his brain.

 

[ben andrews' girlfriend]

fighting for his life? really? he was moving when they had him on the stetcher out of the ambulane, thought it as just concussion.

He has life threatening injuries, so there is an element of "fighting for his life." Brain injuries do take their time to develop, some things can seem unimportant, then get really bad very very quickly. Sounds like their keeping him under sedation, the most important times will be in the next few days, notably when he wakes up. I'll be very surprised if he's back at all this season.

 

[Icy Gull]

Having seen, on the F1 buildup, the size of the type of spring that hit his helmet full on at 175 mph, he's one lucky guy it didn't kill him instantly.

 

[Gazwag]

I'm sure Northstander would edit his post if he could, see his later posts on this thread