Hugo Valente could miss the rest of the weekend after practice smash

Campos Racing’s Hugo Valente isn’t confident the team will be able to repair his car for the race, let alone qualifying, after a heavy crash in the second free practice session at Termas de Río Hondo in Argentina.

The 22-year-old Frenchman experienced his second major crash in just over a week at Termas de Río Hondo in the second practice session. Valente had crashed out at Paul Ricard in the team’s test car late in February, which was formerly Dusan Borkovic’s race car, after a wheel fell off and he hit the barriers.

In the second practice session today in Argentina, while the fastest of the Chevrolet drivers at the time, Valente lost control of the car, which he reported as a braking issue, and crashed into the barriers with the car erupting into the flames just after 20 minutes into the session.

“Yeah it was brakes,” said Valente to Eurosport after the session. “I was coming down the main straight, and when I touched the brake, the pedal just went completely to the end with no sign of any kind of braking. I had to put down the gears, the engine was screaming a lot, and I tried to turn the car as I didn’t want to do another frontal crash”

With the car being repaired for qualifying, which starts in three hours, pretty much a non-starter, Valente, suffering with some pain and bruising after the crash, also expressed his doubt that he’d be able to race tomorrow.

“It’s not looking very good,” said Valente. “The engine is damaged as well, so we’ll have to see. Campos have done amazing things before last year though, but this time I’m really not optimistic.”