Belgian justice has opened an investigation into "X's involuntary manslaughter" following the accidental death of French driver Anthoine Hubert on Saturday (August 31st) in a Formula 2 race at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit, said Monday. the prosecutor of Verviers, in the east of Belgium.
According to the prosecutor, Gilles de Villers Grand Champs, several experts have been appointed, including a car expert, to shed light on the justice of possible negligence. "For the moment, no evidence suggests that there was negligence, but it will be up to the experts to determine," said to AFP Gilles de Villers Grand Champs.
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"From the moment that there is a deceased person and that the police on the spot drew up a report, it was necessary, at the competent public prosecutor's level, to proceed to an objective analysis of what happened," added the magistrate, evoking "a work of expertise".
The magistrate who was on duty at the prosecutor's office on Saturday also requested the hearing of possible witnesses of the accident as well as the race commissioners, said the prosecutor without being able to specify whether these hearings had already taken place Monday morning.
A pileup during the F1 Grand Prix
The French car driver Anthoine Hubert, 22, was killed Saturday at Spa in an accident during a Formula 2 race held on the sidelines of the F1 Grand Prix, mourning the motor sport. He was involved at the beginning of the second lap of the race in a high-speed pileup with the American Juan Manuel Correa, the Frenchman Giuliano Alesi and the Japanese Marino Sato.
Hubert died from his injuries while Correa was taken to the hospital with broken legs. The latter has not yet been questioned, according to the prosecutor. Sato and Alesi, son of the former F1 driver Jean Alesi, they are unscathed.
The accident took place in one of the fastest parts of the Belgian circuit, the Raidillon, where the track rises sharply after a descent. The F2 is the last level of promotion formulas in motorsport before F1. Hubert was eighth in the championship before the Spa races after sixteen races. In particular, he won two races this year, one in Monaco in May and the other in Le Castellet, France, in June, both contested on the sidelines of the F1 GPs.