Kubica 'stable and making progress'

(AP)

Lotus Renault Formula One driver Robert Kubica is responding well to treatment after undergoing major surgery.

The Pole is in intensive care in a hospital in Italy three days after undergoing a seven-hour operation to repair multiple fractures in his arm and leg, as well as a partially severed hand. Kubica crashed on Sunday in the Ronde di Ancora rally in northern Italy.

Doctor Giorgio Barabino, head of the intensive care unit at Savona's Santa Corona di Pietra Ligure hospital, said yesterday: "The patient is responding positively to therapy. He is conscious and his condition is stable." The 26-year-old will have to wait until the weekend to find out if surgery on his right arm was successful.