Saturday August 28th, 1999

BAR is flying in to Spa two new chassis, following the multiple crashed the team suffered today and yesterday, which saw two of the three disposable cars written off.

Jacques Villeneuve crashed heavily during practice, and today he and teammate Ricardo Zonta both crashed at the Eau Rouge corner. Although in both cases an extensive damage was caused to the cars, the two drivers were lucky to have escaped without any injury.

Villeneuve later described his crash, saying: "I just kissed the kerb on the inside and that just pulled the car in. It was violent but at the same time I know what happened, I made an error. If you know what happens there is no reason to be scared."

Zonta, on the other hand, said he slid on moisture that remained on the track, most likely from Villeneuve's crash - which occurred 12 minutes before that of Zonta's - and both Zonta and the BAR chiefs criticised track marshals for not displaying warning flags or cleaning the track after the qualifying session was stopped, due to Villeneuve's crash. "It's difficult to say what happened but some people said it was a little bit damp there," Zonta said. If it was there I think the organisers should look at this to try and make it safer for the drivers. They didn't show any flags or anything."

BAR chief Craig Pollock said: "We are all very relieved that both our drivers are unhurt, thanks to the strong construction of these cars. Both accidents happened so quickly that neither driver is able to say exactly what happened. We will be examining the cars very closely to try and determine the cause."