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A safety car causing a crash during a race is one of those properly ironic things like, y'know, having 10,000 spoons when all you need is a knife. Or a traffic jam when you're already late.
Actually, it's nothing like either of those. Because it's actually, properly ironic. We think. And it happened this weekend, at the WTCC race in Pau, France.
Take a look at the video, and prepare to wince:
Here's the analysis, Brian: a minor crash has caused the race to be yellow-flagged behind race leader Franz Engstler in his BMW. As he eases down the main straight, the safety car - a Chevrolet Cruze driven by Philippe Cholet and Jean-Pierre Colas - pulls out of the pit lane and straight into his path. Ouch.
A stewards' investigation after the race concluded that Engstler could have done nothing to avoid the crash, that the safety car was not given the signal to leave the pit lane and that it crossed into the middle of the track instead of using the acceleration lane. That's a sizeable blot on Messieurs Cholet and Colas' copybook, we fear.
And here's the really maybe-ironical bit: Engstler was forced to retire from the race, allowing Alain Menu to take the chequered flag. In... a Chevrolet Cruze. Honestly, it's like rain on your wedding day...
Open Car Bar
What do you think?
Want to comment on this?
Mikeado commented on this article
at 01:41 pm on 19 May 2009
Lol wow, that's like being killed by a "Luck o' the Irish" billboard! What exactly happened? The SC proabably had to (or thought they had to) slow them down on that lap, but you can't just pull out in front of a full-speed race and expect everything to be fine. I want to see it from Engstler's view. Tbh he did well to get as far past the SC as he did. What an ironic win though!! Still, it won't be to expensive to replace a Chevrolet Cruze... it is Reasonably Priced, afterall.
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marius2 commented on this article
at 01:55 pm on 19 May 2009
He was Knoked the f....d out.
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elnomis commented on this article
at 02:55 pm on 19 May 2009
the funny thing is, though the beamer is totaled, the Cruze looked completely fine
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Ben27 commented on this article
at 04:18 pm on 19 May 2009
You would expect more damage to the safety car, and you'd expect a better driver too
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Zedd commented on this article
at 04:18 pm on 19 May 2009
The interesting thing to me is how everyone involved seemed to be pretty cool about it all. Can you imagine the consequences if this happened in F1, especially amid the current political turmoil? There would probably be a fight on the track, a fight in the pit lane (between team members or even some principals, i.e. Flavio B.), endless accusations, etc....
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