New car news

08 January 2009 - 16:00

Ronal-doh!

Oh dear. Acclaimed ballet dancer and occasional footballer Cristiano Ronaldo has crashed his Ferrari 599 in a tunnel under Manchester Airport.

The Manchester United winger wrote off his V12 GTB at about 10.30 this morning on the way to United’s training complex in Sale. He was being followed by goalkeeper Edwin Van der Sar, who was driving a Bentley at the time. At sensible and prudent speed, of course.

The Ferrari was described as ‘a write-off’ by onlookers, and judging by the photo, we’d say that’s a pretty accurate judgment. The nearside front wheel was spotted by an onlooker 200 yards down the road, and the left wing was left in particularly bad shape, though we wouldn’t dare to attempt some football-related pun along those lines.

The left-hand drive 599 is one of a host of supercars owned by Ronaldo, whose garage includes a BMW M6, Porsche 911, Bentley Conti GTC (but of course) and a Rolls Royce Phantom.

Ronaldo was not hurt in the incident, though was questioned by police at the scene. Suggestions that the barrier was ‘nowhere near’ to Ronaldo during the incident have been strenuously denied.