This is one of those times when it would be incredibly easy to make fun of female drivers, but, as they say, things aren’t always what they seem. A woman accidentally drove her MINI Cooper onto a live Mercedes race track, but the fault wasn’t entirely hers.
At least, that’s what she’s been telling the local media.
The incident happened last weekend, during a Mercedes Benz Challenge race at Interlagos Circuit in Brazil. You can see it play out in both videos available at the bottom of the page and, even if your Portuguese isn’t incredibly polished, you can probably still make out the outrage in the presenters’ voice.
Once they notice the MINI on the shoulder, lights blinking, they go into what could be described as full tantrum mode. They’re saying stuff like “this is a crime,” and a “threat to citizenship,” along with a complete and utter lack of respect for the sport, before finally deciding that this is a matter for the police.
They would have been right, if this wasn’t an honest mistake. The driver of the MINI, a 29-year-old racer herself, tells UOL that she ended up on that track after taking part at a drag race event at the same facility. She drove there to cheer on her friends but ended up driving herself, since the car of one of them broke down.
After the race, as she was making her way out, she got lost and ended up on the track. Realizing her mistake right away, she pulled over to the green shoulder and put on her lights, and waited for the safety car to come rescue her. She was escorted to the parking lot of her event safely. In the same statement, the woman says she understands she caused a disruption, but maybe the presenters should have held off judgment until they knew what was happening.
“I understand that they did not know what was happening and also had no way of finding out at the time. Despite this, they rashly judged and were very cruel in their words at that trial,” she said.
To boot, hers was an honest mistake made easier by the fact that “access to the track was completely free” because “there were no cones, tapes, plates and not even a staff member at the exit of both events.”
The Sao Paulo Automobile Federation is investigating the incident.
Mano, o sujeito pegou um mini-cooper e invadiu Interlagos durante uma corrida &ûB pic.twitter.com/x8ZvJIxU6y
Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends. Full profile
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