A major accident at the Sebring race. Kubica’s team was in the lead [WIDEO]

Toyota Gazoo Racing’s number seven car was in the lead on the 111th lap of Sebring’s 1000-mile race, but in one corner it fell off the track after making contact with one of the doubled rivals and crashed into the tire barrier. However, this was not a situation after which the team would have to end the competition.

Toyota’s fatal accident at Sebring. Hitting a tire barrier

The damage allowed me to return to the track, but the Argentinian driver Jose Maria Lopez decided to drive through the following corners at a normal, fast pace. After a few of them, however, the car started to smoke heavily, went off the track and hit the tire barrier again, but this time with much greater speed and force.

The barrier broke down completely, and the car first stuck into it and then turned it upside down. The situation was very bad, but fortunately the series management – the long-distance world championship of which the Sebring race is part – informed that Lopez got out of the car on his own. The Argentine passed his tests at the track’s medical center, but fortunately nothing happened to him.

– I feel good. Everyone who helped me get out and see if I was okay deserve a thank you. I wanted to get back to the pit lane quickly, but with this damage I had no control and I was off the track. It was my mistake, said Lopez after he was in the pit and spoke to the leaders of the official race report.

The red flag. Kubica’s team was in the lead after the race resumed

It’s good that Lopez is fine, but the race is over for the Toyota crew. Apart from Lopez, the car was also driven by Kamui Kobayashi and Mike Conway from the UK. In the Hypercar class in which they drove, they were one of the three fastest squads alongside the second Toyota crew – Sebastian Buemi, Ryo Hirakawa and Brendon Hartley, and the one that jumped to first place – Alpine Andre Negrao, Nicolas Lapierre and Matthieu Vaxiviere ‘and.

A red flag was displayed on the track after Lopez’s accident. All the teams stopped on the starting straight and only after the tire barrier had been repaired a few dozen minutes later the competition resumed. Interestingly, at the time of the Toyota accident number seven, the team – Prema Orlen Racing Team was in the first place in its class – LMP2 and retained it also after the resumption of the competition. At that time, however, the car was driven not by a Pole, but by a Swiss, Louis Deletraz.

The Polish team of Inter Europol Competition, after problems that plagued it from the beginning of the competition, took the last, fifteenth place in the LMP2 class. Less than four hours of competition remained until the end of the race.