Cape Town - A former champion in the Dakar Rally’s truck division has been excluded from this year’s event for failing to stop after a collision with a South African spectator.
According to the Motorsport.com website, Andrey Karginov, competing for Russia's Kamaz team in the truck category, was subsequently excluded from this year's event in Peru.
Karginov won the Dakar Rally in the truck class in 2014. He sat out the event last year, competing in the Africa Eco Race instead, but was brought back into Kamaz's four-truck line-up for the 2019 Dakar.
Karginov won two of the five stages of the current event, and was sat in third place overall behind fellow Kamaz drivers Eduard Nikolaev and Dmitry Sotnikov.
"A 60-year-old man from South Africa, who was watching the race in an unsecured area... was hit by a race truck (#518 Andrey Karginov)," a statement released by organisers stated.
The statement continued: "The competitor was excluded from the rally by the jury of commissioners for not stopping to attend the injured spectator."
The spectator suffered a broken femur and was flown to hospital in Arequipa.
WATCH the incident at 5:15 in the video clip below:
Hypothetically, given the same cars to drive, who is the most talented current Formula One driver in your opinion? 
