WATCH: FIA Karting final turns nasty

The racing career of an Italian karter is hanging in the balance after his hurling of bodywork and attacking of a rival went viral this past weekend.

In the final round of the FIA World Karting Championship’s KZ class race at the Lonato karting track in Italy, 23 year old Luca Corberi, having been taken out on the ninth lap of the 25 lap final, was seen on the worldwide television feed standing next to track holding a piece of his damaged kart’s bodywork.

In a shocking turn of events, the son of the owner of the circuit proceeds to hurl the piece of plastic at fellow racer, Paolo Ippolito, who was involved in the incident that led to his retirement. The race continued with exasperated commentator, Jake Sanson, branding Corberi “public enemy number one” and his actions as “absolutely unacceptable”.

Matters soon escalated though as smartphone footage then captured Corberi and his father tackling Ippolito in the pits after the race with the clip going viral on social media and attracting widescale calls for the former to be banned from motorsport for life.

“Luca Corberi has just destroyed any chance he had at a racing career after his disgusting behaviour today at the FIA Karting World champs. His father owns the circuit and is seen power driving the guy into a wall. Life ban for both of these idiots please,” 2009 Formula 1 champion and current SkyF1 pundit Jenson Button wrote on twitter.

The latter clip, which has so far racked up over 31 000 views on YouTube, has not been commented on by the FIA who have also not released any statement on the altercation apart from announcing the disqualification of both Ippolito and Corberi.

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.