Chelsea Herbert hospitalised after qualifying crash

Giles Motorsport driver Chelsea Herbert has been taken to hospital following an incident during Qualifying at Teretonga Park for the Castrol Toyota Racing Series.

The incident happened just seconds after the session began. Having exited pit lane, Herbert veered hard right into the tyre barrier. The car suffered damage to the right suspension, but very little was sustained to the nose other than a detached front wing.

Recovery crews, including fire and ambulance services, helped to extract and stabilise Herbert who was reportedly complaining of back pain.

The lengthy delay meant only a few minutes were left on the clock for Qualifying when the session eventually restarted. As a result, an interesting grid for Race 1 of the weekend has been set up.

Everyone ventured out onto the circuit to try and bank a lap time with Franco Colapinto the first to go sub-1minute55seconds.

Backed by Fernando Alonso, the driver from Argentina clocked a 54.641 to put himself clear of the field. However, he was quickly usurped by Igor Fraga who was one of the last to cross the line.

Fraga managed to do a 54.188, one-tenth clear of nearest rival Jackson Walls who recorded his best qualifying result of the season.

Gregoire Saucy crossed the line to be third fastest, Oliver Rasmussen fourth and Colapinto fifth. Caio Collet, Lirim Zendeli, Ido Cohen, Emilien Denner and Jose Blanco completed the top 10.

Liam Lawson was a lowly 14th overall. M2 Competition teammate Yuki Tsunoda was 11th and a second away from the top spot.

Race 1 of the weekend gets underway at 3:10 pm local time.

Castrol Toyota Racing Series, Qualifying 1

_{Photo: Bruce Jenkins / TOYOTA GAZOO Racing NZ}