Two W Series drivers taken to hospital after six-car Eau Rouge crash
The multi-car incident occurred just five minutes into qualifying for this weekend’s W Series round at Spa-Francorchamps and caused the session to be red-flagged.
Sarah Moore and Abbie Eaton were the first drivers to spin into the barriers at the left-hand side at the top of Eau Rouge before they were collected by Visser, Agren and Belen Garcia.
Both Eaton and Visser’s cars were launched into the air. Fabienne Wolhwend then arrived on the scene at speed and hit Visser.
The W Series confirmed that all drivers were in the process of undergoing medical assessment, with Visser and Agren transferred to hospital.
"All drivers involved in the incident are undergoing medical assessment and two of the drivers – Ayla Agren and Beitske Visser – have been transferred to hospital for further checks," a W Series statement read.
Following a 30-minute delay due to the red flag, the rain-affected session which followed second practice for Formula 1's Belgian Grand Prix got back underway.
Williams academy driver Jamie Chadwick went on to claim pole position ahead of championship rival Alice Powell.
The accident comes just weeks after a serious crash in the Spa 24 Hours race left Williams F1 reserve driver Jack Aitken hospitalised with a broken collarbone and a fractured vertebra.
Seeing a bit too much finger pointing and “I am/was right” on my feed atm, let’s just be bloody thankful that all the girls seem to have gotten away under their own steam. I’m pretty sure everyone has gotten the picture of what needs changing.
— Jack Aitken - 한세용 (@JaitkenRacer) August 27, 2021
It occurred at the same section of track where Anthoine Hubert tragically lost his life after being hit by Juan Manuel Correa’s car in a Formula 2 race in 2019.
A number of drivers have called for changes to be made to Eau Rouge and Raidillon in light of recent events.
Man... Eau Rouge corner in Spa needs to making a change. Don’t want to go too deeply into it but when every race weekend we see a huge incident involved in the same corner, we can’t just ignore it and move on.
— Guanyu Zhou (@gyzhou_33) August 27, 2021
I hope everyone is ok #WSeries