No 1 Audi R18 e-tron quattro Crashes Again in Qualifying at Le Mans

This time it was Lucas Di Grassi behind the wheel of the model, which had been miraculously built on another chassis by Audi Sport engineers overnight, just in time for yesterday's qualifying.

Thankfully, both the car and the driver fared much better than they did in the first accident, with the damage being mostly cosmetic, as the shunt wasn't nearly as massive as Loic Duval's in practice.

The crash happened when Di Grassi lost the rear of the R 18 e-tron quattro after exiting the Indianapolis corner, prompting the car to go nose-first into the barriers on the left hand side of the track.

Since just the front of the model was damaged, Lucas Di Grassi drove the car on its own power to the pits, but sadly his rather erratic driving made Leo Russel, who was driving the No 29 Pegasus Morgan-Nissan, clip the grass outside the track and lose control of his car while trying to avoid the smoking Audi.

Both drivers were then called to race control to explain the incident, with none of them getting any penalties and Audi engineers managing to repair the car on the spot.

In other words, Audi's string of bad luck continues, especially since after the three qualifying sessions ended their cars only managed fifth, sixth and seventh place on the grid, with their arch enemies from Toyota and Porsche taking first, third, second and fourth place, respectively.