Mohammed ben Sulayem, the legendary rally driver, walked away from a spectacular 150kph crash in a Formula One car during an exhibition event yesterday.
The 14-time Middle East Rally champion was driving the car in the Renault F1 Roadshow at the Dubai Autodrome when it veered sideways and spun into a barrier only four seconds after starting.
The crash resulted in substantial damage to the left side of the car, valued at between €1.5million (Dh7.32 million) and €2million. The rear left tyre was shorn off and a spectator who was only a few feet away when it crashed said it looked like “a complete wreckage”.
Organisers of the Dubai event said they believed the car had struggled to adapt to the road surface at the Autodrome – an F1 certified circuit – after being driven at high speed on a desert road earlier in the day. They said its failure to grip the surface as Mr ben Sulayem was accelerating may have caused it to veer.
“The most important thing is that Mohammed was OK and the car is repairable,” said Tarik Ait Said, the operations manager of Renault F1.
“Mohammad Bin Sulayem had earlier driven the car on a closed road successfully. At the circuit, conditions had changed dramatically, which resulted in the incident.”
Anthony Fernandes, press officer of the Automobile and Touring Club of the UAE (ATUC), of which Bin Sulayem is the President, who witnessed the incident said: “It was a scary experience and I’m amazed Mohammad got out of it in one piece. “It was a miracle that he wasn’t badly hurt.”
Fernandes said Bin Sulayem was visibly shaken but took a philosophical view of the life-threatening episode. “He [Bin Sulayem] said things like this happen in motor racing - it was just one of those things. He’s back home and resting.”
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