Full Throttle

Formula One driver Mark Webber was seriously hurt after being hit by a car during a charity multi-sport race, police said.

Webber, who drives for F1’s Red Bull team, was cycling along a road near Port Arthur in the southeast of the island state of Tasmania when he and a four-wheel drive vehicle collided, Tasmania Police Sgt. Jon Ford said.

Ford said the Australian driver was competing in his own charity event, the Mark Webber Pure Tasmania Challenge, a 175-mile challenge using mountain bikes, kayaks and trekking, when the accident happened.

“As a result of the collision, the rider, Mark Webber, suffered serious but non-life threatening injuries,” Ford said. “He was attended at the scene by paramedics attached to the event before being airlifted to the Royal Hobart Hospital.”

A Royal Hobart nursing supervisor said Webber had been transferred to Hobart Private Hospital, where a person who answered the telephone said she had been told to make no comment on Webber’s condition and would not identify herself.

Event director Geoff Donohue said he could not confirm reports that Webber had suffered multiple arm and leg fractures until doctors had a chance to properly diagnose the Australian driver.

“It would appear he’s suffered a fractured leg but until doctors confirm the extent of Mark’s injuries, we won’t know for sure—it’s still early days,” Donohue told Australian Associated Press.

Ford said the event was being raced on open public roads and it was not known whether the stage along that road was cordoned off specifically for the racers.

The challenge, first staged in 2003, is scheduled to end Sunday in Hobart.

Red Bull has already begun its testing program ahead of the 2009 F1 season, but Saturday’s accident is likely to have a major impact on Webber’s preparation for the season, which begins in March.

UPDATE: Webber underwent surgery to pin his broken right leg on Saturday after being hit by a car while cycling in a multi-sport charity event in Tasmania.

Event director Geoff Donohue said the Red Bull driver was in good spirits despite his injuries and expected to be fully recovered in time for the start of the new season in Melbourne on March 29.

Red Bull said on their team website that the 32-year-old would return to Britain to continue his recovery but was likely to miss much of the European winter testing.

“While it looks like he’s out of the winter testing programme, we fully expect Mark to make the starting grid in Melbourne next March,” the team added.