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.