{"id":399852,"date":"2026-04-27T12:11:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T12:11:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/399852\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T12:11:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T12:11:16","slug":"f1-news-max-verstappens-father-jos-unhurt-after-horror-rally-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/399852\/","title":{"rendered":"F1 news: Max Verstappen&#8217;s father Jos unhurt after horror rally crash"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/AA21LpaA.jpeg.jpg\" alt=\"Jos Verstappen unhurt after horror rally crash\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJos Versappen has walked away from a horror rally accident in Belgium. Image: Rallye Sport\/X<\/p>\n<p>The 54-year-old, competing alongside co-driver Jasper Vermeulen, lost control during the Loyers special stage of the Rallye de Wallonie, with his Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 leaving the road and hitting a tree before rolling over.<\/p>\n<p>Images from the scene showed extensive damage to the car, which was left overturned, but both Verstappen and Vermeulen escaped without injury.<\/p>\n<p>Verstappen had been running strongly prior to the incident, sitting third overall heading into Sunday after mounting an aggressive recovery through the field.<\/p>\n<p>His rally had started on the back foot after a time penalty dropped him down the order, while he also carried damage from an earlier stage.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/fcttn.com\/products\/v8s-in-nz-tee\" rel=\"nofollow sponsored noopener\" data-bid=\"1\" data-no-instant=\"1\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: none; vertical-align: middle;\" src=\"https:\/\/speedcafe.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/3-1.webp\" alt=\"\"\/><br \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>However, a series of strong stage performances lifted him back into contention by the end of Saturday.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"fr\">La sortie de Jos Verstappen au rallye de Wallonie en Belgique. \u00c9quipage OK ! <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/DZPziSm8Og\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/DZPziSm8Og<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Rallye Sport (@RallyeSport) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RallyeSport\/status\/2048646356848312522?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">April 27, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The reigning Belgian national rally champion had been competing without his regular co-driver Renaud Jamoul, who was sidelined following ankle surgery, with Vermeulen stepping in for the Belgian event.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the unfamiliar pairing, Verstappen had made significant progress before his rally came to an abrupt end in the opening stages of Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>Following the crash, Verstappen confirmed both he and his co-driver were unharmed, simply stating he was \u201call good.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Organisers described the incident as a \u201cviolent\u201d crash, with sufficient damage to the car forcing immediate retirement from the event.<\/p>\n<p>The Rallye de Wallonie is one of Belgium\u2019s most demanding asphalt rallies, featuring high-speed sections and tight, technical routes run on closed public roads.<\/p>\n<p>Verstappen had entered the event as defending winner, having claimed victory in 2025 alongside Jamoul.<\/p>\n<p>Belgian pair Adrian Fernemont and Martin Lefevre went on to win the 2026 edition of the event.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/t.cfjump.com\/92797\/b\/250635\" rel=\"nofollow sponsored noopener\" data-bid=\"1\" data-no-instant=\"1\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: none; vertical-align: middle;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/250635.jpeg\" alt=\"\"\/><br \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jos Versappen has walked away from a horror rally accident in Belgium. Image: Rallye Sport\/X The 54-year-old, competing&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399853,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,9335,213],"class_list":["post-399852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-slot2","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=399852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}