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.