Fraga Leaves Hospital After Airborne Fuji Crash

Nakajima Racing has revealed Igor Fraga has left hospital following his scary airborne crash at the start of Sunday’s Fuji 300km.

Brazilian driver Fraga’s No. 64 Honda HRC Prelude-GT took flight on the start/finish straight as he was spun around following contact with the Nissan Z NISMO of Mitsunori Takaboshi when the race started in earnest after several laps behind the safety car.

Takaboshi in turn had been tagged by fellow Nissan driver Bertrand Baguette, who was attempting to use his momentum to pass both cars, and the Belgian was later awarded a 90-second stop-and-go penalty for having triggered the incident.

Fraga was soon cleared of serious injury but was taken to hospital as a precaution, and more detailed examinations confirmed the GT500 rookie’s clean bill of health, according to a statement released by Nakajima Racing on Monday.

“From yesterday until today I was in hospital being examined in detail, but there were no major problems and today I was able to safely leave hospital,” said Fraga.

“Regarding the crash itself, thanks to the safety of the car, the medical staff and the speedy work of the officials, there were no serious consequences. I would like to again express my gratitude to everyone who was involved.

“Looking back, if the exact path the car took when flying through the air or the angle had been even slightly different, the outcome could have been completely different.

“For that reason, I don’t want to just say ‘I’m fine’ and move on, but I feel strongly that it’s important to take this experience to help improve safety even further.

“I think there are more points that can be improved in order to create a safe and fun environment for everybody involved in motorsport, so I hope profoundly that my accident can be a trigger for further safety improvements to be made.”

Fraga was making only his third GT500 outing at Fuji sharing driving duties with Riki Okusa, having taken over from Takuya Izawa at Nakajima Racing at the end of last year.

Honda’s GT500 project leader Tomohiro Onishi told reporters in the wake of the accident that he expects the No. 64 car to be repairable in time for the next round at Suzuka without a change of monocoque based on preliminary inspections of the car.

Apologetic Baguette Takes Full Responsibility For Crash

Team Impul Nissan driver Baguette meanwhile accepted full responsibility for the crash, with the resulting penalties — including a drive-through penalty for illegal overtaking on the restart — leaving he and co-driver Kazuki Hiramine two laps down in 12th.

“I was behind Igor and Takaboshi, Igor was struggling a lot with his tire warm-up I think and made quite a bad restart,” Baguette recalled of the incident to Sportscar365.

“Takaboshi was on the right, I was directly behind Igor, and they were two wide. At one point I saw Igor keeping left, and I was faster than both of them, so I went to the right. But just as I went to the right, Takaboshi lifted the throttle.

“I think he thought he was going to pass Igor too early. I was completely surprised. I had no time to react, I just hit Takaboshi a little bit and it was enough to send him into Igor.

“It was my fault, basically. Igor seems to be ok, so that’s the most important.

“It’s not the type of show I want to do, it’s not my style. It was a scary crash and I was responsible for it. Takaboshi had the right to slow down if he thought he was going to pass too early. The reactions were not quick enough from my side.”