Second fatality mars Macau Grand Prix

HONG KONG (AFP) –

This file photo, released by Macau Grand Prix Committee, shows riders competing during the Macau Motorcycle GP, in 2007. A driver in the CTM Macau Touring Car Cup was killed in the second fatality to mar the Macau Grand Prix in two days

A driver in the CTM Macau Touring Car Cup was killed on Friday in the second fatality to mar the Macau Grand Prix in two days, officials said.

Organisers identified the victim as 40-year-old Hong Kong driver Phillip Yau but they could provide no details about how the accident happened.

Yau “succumbed to injuries sustained in a racing accident during the qualifying session this afternoon”, the organisers said in a brief statement.

He was rushed to hospital but was pronounced dead about 30 minutes later, they said.

The Macau Grand Prix covers four days of events including the 12-lap CTM Macau Touring Car Cup and the 46th Macau Motorcycle Grand Prix on Saturday, followed by Sunday’s SJM Formula Three Macau Grand Prix.

Hong Kong television reported that Yau died after after losing control of his Chevrolet Cruze and hitting a wall at more than 200 kilometres (124 miles) an hour.

Footage of the incident showed his car slam into a wall at high speed and burst into flames before rolling to a halt. Yau was still in the car by the time rescue crews arrived and started trying to put out the blaze.

Portuguese motorcycle rider Luis Filipe de Sousa Carreira was killed in an accident during a qualifying session for the Macau Grand Prix on Thursday.

The 35-year-old from Lisbon lost control of his bike and died of his injuries in hospital.

Macau Grand Prix committee coordinator Joao Manuel Costa Antunes defended the event’s safety record.

“I don’t think there is any question about the track, it has existed as it is for 60 years,” Antunes told Hong Kong daily the South China Morning Post (SCMP) on Friday.

None of the events scheduled over the weekend will be cancelled in light of the fatalities, he added.

The Carreira incident was the second death of a motorbike rider at the track in seven years, and the second serious bike accident to occur at the event on Thursday. Italian rider Stefano Bonetti was admitted to hospital after suffering multiple fractures when he crashed during qualifying, said the SCMP.

Celebrated Italian motorbike rider, 24-year-old Marco Simoncelli, died last year in a crash that resulted in the cancellation of the Malaysian MotoGP at Sepang.