Coletti to sit out Brands races

The Italian sustained compressed vertebrae and badly bruised feet when he hit the Eau Rouge barriers at high speed during the feature race.

Prema had intended to return to a three-car line-up this weekend having recruited German F3 driver Tim Sandtler to take the seat occupied by Matteo Chinosi for the first half of the season, but with Coletti sidelined it will run just Basil Shabaan and Sandtler at Brands.

"Thanks to the arrival of Tim Sandtler we could have been able to field three cars again," said team boss Angelo Rosin, "but a bad crash suffered at Spa will prevent us from having Stefano Coletti on track.

"We'll work with two cars, and losing our main reference point will be tough. We're fully relying on Shabaan, a talented and experienced driver who will definitely help Tim in becoming comfortable with the team.

"We also wish Stefano a quick recovery, we'll be back together at Barcelona."

Coletti led the Euro Series standings after winning the season opener, but had since slipped back to ninth in the championship. He had added a parallel GP2 programme with Durango when the Italian squad's former driver Davide Valsecchi moved to Addax to replace the Formula 1-bound Romain Grosjean from Valencia.