Photo: Screenshot edited by autoevolution
One of the oddest Le Mans accidents we've seen in recent years took place earlier, during the second hour of this year's edition of the famous endurance race.
It seems that a combination of rain, poor visibility and the lack of proper driving skills resulted in a rather massive shunt which sees Audi lose one of their three competing R18 e-tron quattro prototypes and a number of other cars get damaged. This comes after their No 1 car crashed not once, but twice even before starting the race.
After a few minutes of heavy rain, visibility had dropped to such a level that the cars were barely moving on one of the Mulsanne Straights, when the No. 81 Ferrari 458 somehow hit the No 3 Audi R18 e-tron quattro, which was then catapulted into both the barriers and the No. 8 Toyota TS040 Hybrid.
Fortunately, all three drivers are absolutely fine, which is not what can be said about the cars, with just the Toyota having limped back to the pits where it is now being repaired.
Both the Ferrari, which was actually leading the GTE Am class before the incident, and the Audi seem to have been retired from the race, with Audi actually closing the garage for their crashed car even before it reached the pits.
The really odd bit is the fact that LMP 1 cars are blistering fast compared with the GT cars at Le Mans, which would kind of put the entire blame for the crash on the Ferrari 458 GTE Am driver, which was simply flying on the rain-soaked Mulsanne and hit the Audi from behind.
At the time of the accident, a Toyota TS040 Hybrid was leading the 2014 edition of the Le Mans 24 Hours, followed by an Audi R18 e-tron quattro and a Porsche 919 Hybrid. We are still over 20 hours away from the end of the race so anything can happen, but we do know for sure that Audi no longer has three cars running.
After a few minutes of heavy rain, visibility had dropped to such a level that the cars were barely moving on one of the Mulsanne Straights, when the No. 81 Ferrari 458 somehow hit the No 3 Audi R18 e-tron quattro, which was then catapulted into both the barriers and the No. 8 Toyota TS040 Hybrid.
Fortunately, all three drivers are absolutely fine, which is not what can be said about the cars, with just the Toyota having limped back to the pits where it is now being repaired.
Both the Ferrari, which was actually leading the GTE Am class before the incident, and the Audi seem to have been retired from the race, with Audi actually closing the garage for their crashed car even before it reached the pits.
The really odd bit is the fact that LMP 1 cars are blistering fast compared with the GT cars at Le Mans, which would kind of put the entire blame for the crash on the Ferrari 458 GTE Am driver, which was simply flying on the rain-soaked Mulsanne and hit the Audi from behind.
At the time of the accident, a Toyota TS040 Hybrid was leading the 2014 edition of the Le Mans 24 Hours, followed by an Audi R18 e-tron quattro and a Porsche 919 Hybrid. We are still over 20 hours away from the end of the race so anything can happen, but we do know for sure that Audi no longer has three cars running.
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