Italian racer Luca Corberi overnight became the main anti-hero of motorsport.
The 23-year-old pilot created an emergency during a kart race and got into a fight with his rival Paolo Ippolito.
The International Automobile Federation (FIA) has launched an investigation into the culprit, who, without waiting for the outcome of the proceedings, announced his retirement from the sport.
A glaring incident occurred during the final stage of the KZ Karting World Championship, which took place in Lonato, Italy.
Corbury is no longer a regular participant in the races and only enters them from time to time for his own pleasure.
The track in Lonato belongs to his family, and so this time he got behind the wheel of the kart.
On the ninth lap, in the fight for 15th place, he could not avoid a collision with Ippolito.
The latter broke the rules and thereby provoked the accident.
Luca flew off the track, crashed against a wall and was forced to end the race.
However, he did not leave the circuit, but remained to take revenge on his abuser.
The pilot took the fallen off bumper, waited for Paolo to pass by, and threw a spare part at him.
Corbury missed Ippolito, but the bumper hit one of the riders who were following.
Fortunately, as a result of this incident, no one was injured on the track.
Outrageous scenes in the FIA Karting World Championship final at the Lonato circuit as Luca Corberi - whose family operate the venue - threw his bumper at a rival and ignored marshals as he stormed off across the track after an incident.
pic.twitter.com/PgCPs9JLlH
- RaceFans (@racefansdotnet) October 4, 2020
After that, Corbury went to the pits, ignoring the stewards who made comments to him.
After some time, Corbury attacked Ippolito, while he was working with the machine, knocked the opponent to the ground and began to strike with his hands.
The pilots were quickly separated, but then another man attacked Ippolito.
It was later revealed that it was Corbury's father.
It took some time for the surrounding people to calm down both sides of the conflict.
The race's stewards eventually disqualified both pilots.
Ippolito was punished for a maneuver that led to a collision with Corbury, and he suffered the same punishment, but for the fact that in another episode he drove off the track.
The subsequent actions of the Italian driver will now be considered by the International Karting Commission, which is part of the FIA.
Its president, the former Formula 1 pilot Felipe Massa, has promised to punish Luca to the fullest extent of the rules adopted in motorsport.
“This behavior is unacceptable for our sport.
Such actions must have certain consequences, "- wrote Massa on his Instagram.
Former world champion in the "royal races" Jenson Button called for permanent disqualification of Corbury and his father.
He backed up his words with a video, which shows how they both attacked Ippolito.
“With his disgusting behavior at the World Karting Championship, Luca Corbury has just deprived himself of any chance of continuing his racing career.
His father, the owner of the track, pushed the man hard against the wall.
Please disqualify these two idiots for life, ”Button reacted.
Corbury himself soon realized the severity of his actions and apologized on Facebook.
He promised never to race again, no matter what the FIA investigation reveals about him.
“I want to apologize to the racing community for what I did.
There can be no excuse for my shameful actions.
In 15 years of my career, I have never done anything like this, and I sincerely hope that we will not see something like this in the future.
I decided to no longer take part in racing competitions for the rest of my life.
And this is not lynching, but just the right thing to do.
My family has been involved with karting since 1985.
We saw how it developed, we saw the best and worst moments.
This episode will be remembered as one of the worst in our sport, and this I can never forget.
I am not asking for leniency because I do not deserve it.
I am ready to take any punishment, "wrote Corbury, after which he retired from all social networks.
In the past, Corbury was a budding kart pilot.
In 2012 he won the KF3 World Cup, beating future Formula 1 drivers George Russell and Lance Stroll.
However, the Italian failed to achieve more significant success, and soon he stopped active performances.