Sausage kerbs have increasingly become the cause of dangerous incidents over the past few years. The device was meant to forcefully delineate the limits of the track separate from the paved runoff area. These huge kerbs also have the tendency to launch cars into the air and physically harm drivers. Last weekend in Austin, Abbie Eaton was forced to sit out the second race of the W Series season-ending doubleheader due to a vertebral compression fracture she suffered after driving over a kerb during the first race at the Circuit of the Americas.
This weekend there was another incident involving a huge kerb at a season-ending doubleheader. The Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine ended their season with two races at Monza. The crash-filled second race was largely decided by a collision at the front of the field near the end of the race.
With about 7 minutes to go, David Vidales attempted to overtake his Prema Powerteam teammate Dino Beganovic for the lead just after a restart. After the exit of Curva Grande, Vidales pulled to the outside of Beganovic for the second chicane. Both drivers ran off the track into the runoff area. Beganovic was able to safely rejoin the racing surface, but Vidales was less fortunate.
David Vidales launched off a kerb, kicking his front tires high into the air. Vidales’ car continued out-of-control straight across the track into his teammate. The collision destroyed both cars with the rest of the field having to frantically maneuver to avoid striking the Prema cars. Another driver, Nicola Marinangeli lost control of his own car avoiding them, leaving the track, sliding across grass down to the next corner and beaching his car in gravel.
Both drivers would climb out of their cars upset but seemingly unharmed. Isack Hadjar, the third-place driver at the time of the incident, would go on to win the final race of the season.
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