Anthoine Hubert fatal crash report finds no single cause and no-one to blame

The death of Anthoine Hubert at last year’s Belgian Grand Prix had no single cause and no-one was to blame, the official report says.

Hubert was killed in a multi-car accident at the start of the Formula 2 race at Spa-Francorchamps on 31 August.

The report by governing body the FIA says Hubert was killed by a “non-survivable trauma” caused by the “extremely high level of energy transferred and dissipated”.

It concludes that none of the four drivers or officials involved acted inappropriately.

The Frenchman was subject to two impacts, the first with the barrier on the exit of the high-speed Raidillon corner, which he hit at 216km/h, generating a peak force of 33.7G; the second when he was hit by the car of American Juan Manuel Correa, which was a force of 81.8G.

The FIA’s findings were that:

• “Multiple contributory factors giving rise to the severity of the accident were identified, following a detailed analysis of the various phases of the accident”.
• A chain of events led to a “protracted and complex crash sequence… which led to a high-speed ‘T-bone’-type impact between the cars of Hubert and Correa”, who suffered serious leg injuries in the crash.
• There was “no evidence that any driver failed to react appropriately in response to the yellow flag signal or to the circumstances on track”.
• The reaction of the trackside marshals and race control officials was “timely and good”.

More to follow.