The 1994 event is considered to be the blackest weekend in the history of the sport since the 1960 Belgian Grand Prix and it was to mark a watershed of developments to make the sport safer. It was marred by several accidents and two driver deaths over the weekend. On the Friday, during practice, Jordan driver Rubens Barrichello suffered a severe concussion in a collision at the Variante Bassa chicane in which he decelerated violently, went off the banked kerbing and into the fence protecting the crowd from the circuit. The young Brazilian was knocked unconscious for a few minutes. The next day, in qualifying, Simtek driver Roland Ratzenberger crashed at the Villeneuve Corner after his front wing, which he damaged on his first qualifying lap, broke off and Ratzenberger, unable to steer the car into the corner, crashed almost head on into a retaining wall close to the track at nearly 195 mph, suffered a basilar skull fracture and was killed. Then finally, on race day, Benetton driver JJ Lehto and Lotus driver Pedro Lamy collided at the start, with debris flying over the fences injuring eight spectators. Then, on Lap 7, Williams driver Ayrton Senna after a possible mechanical issue with his car, ran off course at the high-speed Tamburello. Senna first came off the track at 325 km/h (195 mph), downshifting twice to 225 km/h (135 mph) before colliding with the wall. Although the accident looked heavy but seemed survivable, a piece of suspension and the right front wheel came off, these items both hit and pierced Senna's helmet at extremely high speeds and caused critical head injuries; the triple-world champion Brazilian died from his injuries at a hospital in Bologna hours later. Later in the race, a wheel from Michele Alboreto's Minardi came off while he was exiting the pitlane; it hit and injured 4 mechanics from Ferrari and Lotus. German Michael Schumacher won the race, with Ferrari temporary replacement Nicola Larini finishing second, but there were no celebrations at all. After these tragic events, Tamburello's flat-out left was changed to a chicane and a right-hander known as the Villenueve curve. These modifications forced the drivers to slow down, therefore made the track much safer.