A truly horrific wreck that probably wouldn't have been survivable 20 or 30 years ago.

Afterwards it sounded like the photographers and track workers might have scraped by with only minor nicks and cuts. Very lucky.

WOW!

And this is what happened later that day.
They had to replace 127 section of armco.

And again the driver got out without serious injuries.

WOW McNish was very lucky, right at the end they show the marshals turning the car the right way up before me could get out.

I watched this years Le Mans pretty much from start to finish (other than 6 hours sleep) for the first time ever. It was a stunning race from and contained 2 of the most massive crashes that i have ever seen.

The danger of the sport is part of the excitement but when those 2 crashes happened i definitely feared the worst. The fact that both drivers were essentially unhurt is a testament to the engineering the teams put into their cars. Awesome.

The race was a stunner with seconds between the overall first and second place cars after a 24 hours running.. roll on 2012 as i will be sat in my chair watching it again. Brilliant entertainment.

The gap would have been bigger if Peugeot had been fair.
That Peugeot is 4 laps behind the leading Audi.

But even with driving like that, 3 cars still in the race and being able to do one more lap with a tank of fuel They couldn't beat the Audi.

One of the tyres flew off and the people behind the barrier were VERY lucky that noone of them got hit by it! I wonder anyway how it was possible that the car didn't get over the barrier at all.

Lucky. Just very lucky.

It fits that at 0:21 I could hear someone say "s***" in German...

Incredible. Glad McNish and the bystanders were OK.

On Speed TV the regular announcers were assisted by Scott Pruett of Grand Am Prototype fame. He was incredulous after the wreck, with no sympathy for what he felt was an unconscionably bad move by McNish - and he went on a bit of a rant about what he thought was a move that did nothing but endanger the other racers.

The other commentators tried to soften his words, offering that McNish could have misjudged closure, or that the Ferrari should have stayed wide, but Pruett was insistent that McNish, an otherwise superlative driver, made an arrogant, unnecessary and truly dumb move so early in the race. What may not be visible in the YouTube clip is that there are two GT Porsches just ahead of the Ferrari, and had he not clipped the Ferrari he probably would have made contact with the Porsches at the turn's exit, given the closure involved.

Later Speed commentator Justin Bell interviewed his Dad, Derrek Bell (former Porsche 917 driver) about his thoughts on the wreck. He said that crash shocked him, because "back in the day" that crash would not have been survivable. Apparently in the 1971 917, Derrek's feet were about even with the front axle, with only some tube-frame chassis to (not) protect his legs. He was impressed with the crash-worthiness of the Audi's Dallara monocoque.

I can watch that crash with amazement over and over again, due to the motion of the disintegrating chassis. Just before the ARMCO the Audi skips like a stone on the water, and nearly vaults the barrier. It hits, spins like a top, but somehow hooks a wheel on the barrier and spins back towards the gravel trap, avoiding the track marshalls and photographers. Just amazing no by-standers were seriously injured or killed.

We saw that on the big screens from our seats in the Sarthe stand. All the more scary when the whole crowd goes silent, and the only noise is the cars still running. Then a huge cheer and round of applause as McNish got out of the car.

When Rockenfeller had his accident there was a very protracted period of waiting for news, compounded by lack of pictures due to it being dark. The hush in the crowd punctuated by exclamations as the screen showed replays was very eery.

It was very lucky noone was seriously hurt or killed.

That's an interesting observation about the Porsches ahead - I know the replay is in slow-mo but boy they look to be moving slowly. Maybe McNish was hoping to slingshot around the outside of them but it certainly looks like he could have collected one or both of those.

It certainly turned out to be a bad call by the Audi driver but only he knows what was going through his mind when he pulled out from behind his team mate.

Re the photgraphers/spectators: that guy in the blue jacket was completely unaware of that wheel/suspension bouncing either side and all around him. Very lucky!

I almost wonder if McNish had to commit to the pass as he crested the rise after the Dunlop bridge - in other words he made a move and somehow had not noticed the traffic situation (or fully comprehended it) and the accident became inevitable at that point.

Might be worth noting that the visibility out of those closed cockpit Prototypes looks abysmal. Between the narrow glazing and the high fenders, your view must be very restricted compared to the R15's open cockpit. I wonder if that might have had some influence on events. I know I've been in cars with really wide A-pillars (windshield pillars) and with just the right geometry had things "hide" in the occlusion caused by the pillars until they suddenly pop into view and surprise you. I wonder if a low-slung 458 Italia might be able to hid behind those big front fenders on the Audi.

You can't see much in these cars and the it is possible to hide a car from view behind an other.
Even with the camera's high besides the tracks you some times couldn't see the Audi if it was close behind a GT car.

Every one knows now that he shouldn't have made that pass. But at that moment he had his teammate slow down and he probably didn't see that slower Ferrari.

According to Eurosport commentators who analyzed the accidents in depth, there were several contributing factors to the accidents:

Smaller engines: Restrictions have been introduced in an attempt to slow down the cars and keep the laptimes for the fastest of them at around 3 min. 30. This means that if you lift off, it takes longer to regain lost momentum.

The engineers in turn have sacrificed downforce for speed, in an attempt to combat the new rules.

With the race result projected to being a very close thing, I have no doubt that the Audi team strategy was to push, push and push from the start and til the end.

Ergo McNish thought he was OK when going for the pass of the other Audi and possibly did not see or know about the slower car, visibility in the cars being very limited.

Discussing the other accident led to quite a debate on Eurosport: Some commentators thought the Ferrari would have seen the Audi from a long way off; the Audi headlights are impossible to miss, and so the Ferrari should have lifted off or not moved over to the racing line.

The other viewpoint was that rearward vision out of the slower cars was just as atrocious as forward vision out of the closed cockpit LMPs so being blinded by a set of Audi headlamps would just tell the driver in the slower car that a fast car was somewhere behind but speed and position would be very hard to estimate correctly.

In drivers briefing prior to the race drivers of the slower cars had been told to be predictable and let the faster cars pick the time and place of passing, the faster cars being responsible for doing so in a safe way.

Now the million dollar question is; what is more predictable. Staying off line, letting off the throttle as your neck is illuminated with a couple of thousand lumens, or following your racing line?

Wow. That car just shredded itself, didn't it?

Which is one big reason why McNish walked away. A lot of energy dissipation in all that trash being thrown about.

Very nice thread guys, lots of valuable information.


I will just share something. In my opinion, those 2 huge crashes and very, very long Safety Car periods actually gave Audi the win. That is what allowed Audi to save more fuel and ruined Peugeot's "less pitstops" strategy in the same time. I mean, if I remember correctly, the SC after Rocky's crash was staying for amount of time equal to two stints? Of course I am not saying here, that they were a part of strategy, but it just turned out to be good for the last car number 2.


What I think was a part of strategy though, was the very aggressive driving. They knew that the only way they can win is by speed. Maybe they even got surprised by Peugeot, with their less pitstops and done a last minute command to push as hard as possible. Both McNish and Rocky went all-in in their situations. McNish could wait a bit, but also Rocky could wait just a little bit. I am sure the Ferrari entered the chicane smoothly for a reason, to be able to stay as long as possible on the left and leave Rocky space on the right side. In the end, both cars wouldnt loose that much time.