• Brazilian Grand Prix

Interlagos safety improved

ESPNF1 Staff
October 28, 2010 « Teams agree to new cost-cutting measures | »
Mark Webber suffered a big accident at Interlagos in 2003 © Getty Images
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Organisers of the Brazilian Grand Prix have improved the standards of safety at the Interlagos circuit at one of its most dangerous sections ahead of the penultimate round of the Formula One championship.

The area concerned is the exit of the fast left-hand kink before the pitlane, where Brazilian stock car driver Rafael Sperafico died instantly after hitting the tyre barriers and bouncing into the path of a competitor.

According to Globo Esporte, organisers have replaced the tyre barriers with a 225 metre stretch of 'softwall', a combination of foam mounted behind hollow metal barriers intended to absorb the impact of an accident without spearing a car back onto the circuit.

"It's a barrier that absorbs the impact," said circuit engineer Luis Ernesto Morales. "It is a dangerous point of the circuit, with the wall very close."

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