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Spa GP2 crash: Daniel de Jong fractures vertebrae and has surgery

MP Motorsport driver Daniel de Jong suffered a fractured vertebrae in his GP2 feature race collision with Red Bull protege Pierre Gasly at Spa

De Jong, who was described as being conscious and in good spirits after the crash, was transferred by helicopter to hospital in Liege for further assessment following the race.

Doctors there confirmed the Dutchman had fractured his sixth vertebrae and that it needed immediate attention.

AUTOSPORT understands de Jong underwent a successful four-hour surgery last night.

He is in now in a stable condition, but will remain in Liege hospital next week.

The GP2 series issued the following statement from de Jong's family: "We would like to thank the medical team that treated him with success and would also like to thank their colleagues, the GP2 drivers and teams and the series organisers for their support."

The accident happened when de Jong and Gasly ran side by side through Blanchimont early in the race.

The pair rubbed wheels and collided, the contact sending de Jong hurtling towards the barrier on the outside at speed.

On impact the MP Dallara was engulfed by and rode up the tyre wall, which caused the race to be red-flagged as medical staff carefully extracted de Jong from the awkward position.

GASLY AMONG PENALTIES

DAMS driver Gasly was penalised for the incident with a 10-second addition to his Saturday race time.

According to a GP2 statement, the stewards ruled that Gasly "moved to the right of the track colliding with de Jong. The latter had a significant portion of the car alongside Gasly."

That punishment was in addition to a 30s penalty for being one of a group of drivers judged to have failed to slow down sufficiently during the safety car period for the crash.

Richie Stanaway, Marlon Stockinger, Sean Gelael and Nick Yelloly were also penalised for this infringement, getting 30s time additions in lieu for 10s stop/go penalties in the race.

As Yelloly retired following a collision with Nobuharu Matsushita, his penalty becomes a pitlane start for Sunday morning's race instead.

Stockinger was the only one of the penalised drivers to have finished in the points, taking 10th, and his demotion to 17th means Gustav Malja scores on his GP2 debut.

REVISED RACE RESULT - 25 LAPS:

Pos Driver Team Gap
1 Stoffel Vandoorne ART Grand Prix 1h22m18.099s
2 Arthur Pic Campos Racing 9.979s
3 Artem Markelov RUSSIAN TIME 12.856s
4 Julian Leal Carlin 13.106s
5 Mitch Evans RUSSIAN TIME 19.264s
6 Alexander Rossi Racing Engineering 19.527s
7 Nathanael Berthon Daiko Team Lazarus 23.723s
8 Jordan King Racing Engineering 29.267s
9 Sergey Sirotkin Rapax 34.144s
10 Gustav Malja Trident 35.169s
11 Alex Lynn DAMS 35.610s
12 Sergio Canamasas Daiko Team Lazarus 35.797s
13 Rio Haryanto Campos Racing 41.571s
14 Raffaele Marciello Trident 46.546s
15 Robert Visoiu Rapax 51.632s
16 Andre Negrao Arden International 1m03.453s
17 Marlon Stockinger Status Grand Prix 1m04.859s
18 Richie Stanaway Status Grand Prix 1m13.894s
19 Pierre Gasly DAMS 1m15.857s
20 Sean Gelael Carlin 1m20.840s
- Oliver Rowland MP Motorsport Retirement
- Nick Yelloly Hilmer Motorsport Retirement
- Nobuharu Matsushita ART Grand Prix Retirement
- Daniel de Jong MP Motorsport Retirement
- Norman Nato Arden International Retirement

RACE TWO STARTING GRID:

Pos Driver Team
1 Jordan King Racing Engineering
2 Nathanael Berthon Daiko Team Lazarus
3 Alexander Rossi Racing Engineering
4 Mitch Evans RUSSIAN TIME
5 Julian Leal Carlin
6 Artem Markelov RUSSIAN TIME
7 Arthur Pic Campos Racing
8 Stoffel Vandoorne ART Grand Prix
9 Sergey Sirotkin Rapax
10 Gustav Malja Trident
11 Alex Lynn DAMS
12 Sergio Canamasas Daiko Team Lazarus
13 Rio Haryanto Campos Racing
14 Raffaele Marciello Trident
15 Robert Visoiu Rapax
16 Andre Negrao Arden International
17 Marlon Stockinger Status Grand Prix
18 Richie Stanaway Status Grand Prix
19 Pierre Gasly DAMS
20 Sean Gelael Carlin
21 Oliver Rowland MP Motorsport
22 Nobuharu Matsushita ART Grand Prix
23 Daniel de Jong MP Motorsport
24 Norman Nato Arden International
25 Nick Yelloly Hilmer Motorsport


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