Photo: TCR South America

Cascavel Race 1 postponed after major start crash

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Race 1 of the TCR South America weekend at Cascavel has been cancelled due to damage to the pit wall and barriers after a major start crash which involved four cars, with the race postponed to Sunday morning local time.

Nelson Piquet Jr. stalled as the lights went out from pole position and Bruno Massa was unable to avoid the stationary Honda driver.

The two were then collected by Honda Adrian Chiriano and Guilherme Reischl.

Massa’s car speared off into pit wall gate, causing structural damage which was not possible to repair in time for a restart.

Sebastian Martino, chief of the Honda YPF team, said: “We still don’t know what happened with the car but, thankfully, none of the drivers were injured, although we had to leave the pit wall as it was dangerous to stay there.”

Federico Punteri, director of the TCR South America, said: “Sadly the accident broke a barrier and part of the pit wall, so we have decided to reschedule the race for 09:00 tomorrow, with Race 2 maintaining the original timetable (14:10 local, 19:10 CEST).

“Thankfully, all the drivers are ok, it’s only Reischl that is suffering some backache, but nothing serious,” he added.