Photo: Screenshot from Oliver Millroy's Instagram account

Organizers of the China GT Championship acknowledged shortcomings in the management of emergency response and rescue operations following a serious crash at the series' Shanghai round. A driver pulled a rival from a burning car, while participating teams and drivers accused event organizers of failing to respond adequately.

The China GT organizing committee said Sunday on its official Sina Weibo account that a preliminary review found the event's overall arrangements met the requirements for a national-level competition, but acknowledged that "detailed management" needed to be improved.

"After the race, we will further review and investigate the accident and formulate more comprehensive plans to address shortcomings in competition organization, support, emergency response, rescue and medical services," the organizing committee said in a statement.

The committee expressed sympathy to British driver Oliver Millroy and other drivers involved in the crash and thanked Dutch driver Loek Hartog for being the first to arrive at the scene and provide assistance.

The statement came a day after a multi-car crash during the seventh lap of the China GT Championship's Shanghai round on Saturday. The No. 37 and No. 33 cars went off the track while battling and collided with the side and fuel tank area of the No. 91 car, which immediately caught fire.

Millroy, the driver of the No. 91 car, was trapped in the burning vehicle.

Hartog, who drove the No. 79 car, stopped and abandoned the race. He took a fire extinguisher and put out the flames, helping pull Riola from the car.

Millroy later credited Hartog with saving his life in a post on his Instagram account.

"I am still alive tonight entirely thanks to one man," Millroy said in a statement after the race. He said Hartog stopped when there were no flag marshals or emergency personnel in sight and risked his own life to pull him from the car.

Hartog later replied to Riola's post: "You have nothing to thank me for. I wish to live in a world where this would not be considered as bravery, but simply an instinct of others too… I am so thankful to have been right at the place I needed to be in space and time."

Riola suffered five broken ribs, a fractured collarbone and fingers, as well as a lung contusion, according to his team, FIST AUTO. He is expected to undergo operations and will need several weeks to recover before he can fly, according to the Shanghai media outlet The Paper.cn.

FIST AUTO issued a statement on Saturday night strongly criticizing the organizers, saying that they had failed to deploy sufficient medical resources immediately after the crash and had yet to issue an official apology for the shortcomings exposed by the incident.

The team announced that it would withdraw from all future China GT events until the organizers conduct a complete, independent and public investigation and provide a formal response.

Yang Baijie, driver of the No. 33 car for 610 Racing, also raised concerns about the emergency response in a social media post.

Yang said some rescue personnel dropped their fire extinguishers and fled the scene out of fear, while an ambulance arrived about 15 minutes after the crash.

He also accused race officials of summoning the drivers to an arbitration room after the race without first checking whether they were safe, offering any words of concern or comfort, or checking comfort, or checking on the other two drivers involved. Officials, he added, made no mention of the response time.

Yang announced that he would permanently withdraw from China GT as a protest. "This is the only way I can think of to protest, until everyone involved in the series takes life and safety seriously."

On Sunday, the second day of the event, the No. 85 car driven by Chinese actor Wang Yibo was hit on the inside of Turn 11. The impact caused him to retire from the race, reports said.

Global Times