Theo Pourchaire and Enzo Fittipaldi have both been taken to hospital after a crash on the start line in the Formula 2 feature race at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

Starting from third, Pourchaire stalled on the grid and numerous cars behind him were trying to avoid contact as the rest of the field accelerated away. Fittipaldi had started from 18th but was unable to see the stalled car as others swerved in avoidance, and went into the back of Pourchaire’s ART at high speed.

Both drivers were conscious after the incident but the race was stopped for over half an hour while medical crews attended to them, with a combination of road ambulance and medical helicopter taking them to hospital.

“The drivers were immediately attended to by emergency and medical crews. The drivers were conscious and extricated by the attending medical crews,” the FIA announced. “Both have been transferred by ambulance and helicopter to King Fahad Armed Forces Hospital, Jeddah.”

The race resumed at 6:45pm local time but only five laps were completed before another crash between Oli Caldwell and Guilherme Samaia brought out the red flags again. While this was a much lower-speed collision and both drivers walked away unscathed (pictured above), the need to clear the cars was going to cause too much of a delay after the earlier incident, and the race was not restarted.

Championship leader Oscar Piastri was credited with a half-points victory in the feature race having also won race two, leaving him with a comfortable 51.5-point advantage heading to the final round in Abu Dhabi.

UPDATED: Pouchaire shared his status through social media with reassurances that he is “globally fine” after the accident, but is uncertain if he will be able to return to the cockpit for the season finale next weekend.

Hey everyone,

Just wanted to tell you that I’m globally fine ! For the moment I don’t know if it’s already the end of the season for me. But the most important is not that, that was a really big one and Enzo is injured.

I wish him the best recovery possible !

— Théo Pourchaire (@TPourchaire) December 5, 2021

The latest status of Fittipaldi was also shared through social media channels,  courtesy of his older brother, Pietro. In the message, Pietro mentions Enzo suffered an injury –  a fractured right heel – but is awake and alert.

🇬🇧Hey everyone thanks for all the messages. Enzo is awake/alert and resting at the hospital. He has a fracture in his right heel but thankfully things are much better than what we all expected. Thank you to the FIA, the team and all the medical staff here in Saudi Arabia.

— Pietro Fittipaldi (@PiFitti) December 6, 2021