The wrecked rally car of Formula One driver Robert Kubica is removed from the scene of the crash in Andora, Italy. The wrecked rally car of Formula One driver Robert Kubica is removed from the scene of the crash in Andora, Italy.
Genoa - Formula One driver Robert Kubica of Poland underwent surgery on Sunday after suffering serious injuries in a rally car accident in Italy just weeks before the start of the new Grand Prix season, his Lotus Renault team said.
Surgeons at a hospital in northern Italy were trying to restore his right hand's functionality, the driver's manager was quoted as saying.
“The surgeons are trying to restore the functions of his right hand,” Italian news agency ANSA quoted Kubica's manager, Daniel Morelli, as saying. “They have already revascularised the limb and repaired the bone structure.”
Morelli said that “Robert has strong character and he will make it”, according to ANSA.
He said the “clinical situation isn't easy”, but denied that there was a risk of an amputation.
“At this stage there is no such risk,” Morelli said outside the hospital. “We're talking about the functionality.”
The 26-year-old Kubica “suffered a high-speed accident this morning while competing in the Ronde di Andora Rally,” his team said in a statement. He was “diagnosed with multiple fractures to his right arm, leg and hand. He is currently undergoing surgery at the Santa Corona Hospital in Pietra Ligure.”
ANSA reported that surgery on Kubica began at around 13h00 GMT, after professor Igor Rossello, a hand specialist, was called to the hospital.
Fellow F1 driver Fernando Alonso of Ferrari reportedly paid a brief visit to the hospital.
Kubica, eighth in last year's F1 world championship, now looks unlikely to race at Bahrain on March 13.
Earlier on Sunday, local health authority officials in Italy had said Kubica's life was not in danger, and that the worst damage appeared to be to his limbs.
“Certainly it is a very delicate situation, as the first hours always are after a huge trauma, one in which there could also have been a strong bleeding,” Roberto Carrozzino, a local health authority official, told Sky Italia in the aftermath of the crash.
Carrozzino said the driver had undergone an examination to assess any possible damage to internal organs and the brain.
Kubica arrived at the Santa Corona hospital in Pietra Ligure, a small coastal town about 60km southwest of Genoa, about two hours after the accident because it was difficult to extract him, Carrozzino said. TV footage showed a wrecked car with parts of a door missing and the front curled up.
ANSA said the driver was 4.6km from the start of the rally, near Genoa, when his Skoda Fabia left the road and hit a wall. His co-driver Jakub Gerber was unhurt, the Lotus Renault team said.
“We were driving the first four kilometres of the first trial,” Gerber told ANSA. “I was looking at my notes and didn't notice that the car skidded. Only after the moment of impact did I see that Robert was holding his arm and shortly afterward he lost consciousness.”
Kubica was due to lead the Lotus Renault F1 team this season alongside Vitaly Petrov of Russia, with former HRT driver Bruno Senna named as a third driver. Romain Grosjean, who drove for Renault in 2009, was also named third driver alongside Senna.
It was not immediately known whether Senna or Grosjean would take Kubica's place in Bahrain should he fail to recover.
Last week, Kubica closed Formula One's first test session of the season with the fastest time over three days in Valencia, Spain.
The next F1 test session is February 10-13 in Jerez, Spain. - Sapa-AP