Mark Webber walks away from terrifying accident

[gary]

Our hearts stopped tonight watching Mark's horrific accident.
The Red Bull ran over the rear wheel of Kovalainen's Lotus, flew vertically
into the air and landed upside down, flipped over right way up and and then
plowed into the tyre wall with considerable energy. Thankfully
Mark walked away from it and we hope he will be OK.

[MrB]

Red Bull gives you wings.

Marks view of the Red Bull Air Race in Valencia....

[gary]

Hi Simon,

In that case it was lucky he didn't have to fly the 'knife edge' through
those two cones.

I notice in the slow motion that the car flipped up high enough to take
out the DHL advertising sign overhanging the track.

Good to see he looked OK back in the medical centre and managed a
wry smile. It sure was one heart-stopping moment.

[MrB]

Yes it was a heartstopping moment, the non-slomo replays were very scarey.
At first I couldn't believe what I was seeing it all happened so quick... @ 320km/h (commentators claim 98 metres a second!! but that would be 350km/h)

Here's the slomo video on youtube for anyone that didn't see it. (In the pic above I stole the cockpit view from this vid)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJh6A-5CaOY

[gary]

When you consider the footage from the cockpit camera when he is airborne
is near real-time and barely slowed, and then when you consider the reaction time of an F1
driver, that period when he is just coming up and up toward the sun must have
felt like an absolute eternity. Plenty of time to contemplate, "Boy, this is really
going to hurt".

[Steffen]

And yet again Webber has been victimised! I mean, what was Kovalainen doing there in the middle of the road?? Everybody knows that you have to stay out of the way when Webber is about… :poke: ;)

Cheers
Steffen.

[sejanus]

on any corner on any racetrack if heikki brakes 60-70 metres too early at 300+ with a car behind him, someone is going to hit him, whether it be webber or santa claus.

[snowyskiesau]

Video removed due to copyright issue !

[gary]

Video link on Sydney Morning Herald -

http://media.smh.com.au/sport/sports-hq/webber-walks-away-from-horror-crash-1649132.html?from=newsbox

[mswhin63]

Watched it live last night (couldn't sleep) damn it was horrible, seen crashes like this before and he is sooooo lucky.

[goober]

Haven't read any interviews from drivers about this one - just went to bed right after the race. Looked horrific - it appeared like Heiki got off the throttle and Mark just ran up the back of him. It was for position but we're talking about two distinct classes of car speed here. Must have taken Mark right back to his Mercedes/Le Mans GT1 days...

[DiamondDust]

As if landing on his head wasn't enough he slams into the tyre wall! I thought at least his legs and or ankles would have been broken. Those cars are built tough aren't they? Thank god the fuel pods didn't rupture, they would have been almost full................wow it doesn't bear thinking about.

[Kal]

I've been watching F1 races live for many years, and my heart sank when I saw the accident live and I was hoping he was alright. I was relieved and suprised when he tossed out his steering wheel and got out unscathed.

Certainly a testimony to the safety of the car.

[goober]

Yeah, I don't think I missed one since Ratzenberger and Senna were killed in 1994 at Imola. You kind of get used to how good these cars are now, but you never are quite sure....

[Ric]

I saw that on the news last night.

Mark is a lucky fellow, those cars are built for massive impacts but things can still go wrong.