VIDEO: Stephane Ortelli's wild ride at Monza
Motorsport is a game of inches and tenths. A few inches here and a few tenths of a second there can mean the difference between spectacle and tragedy. Case in point: Team ORECA driver Stephane Ortelli's horrifying crash during today's Le Mans Series race at Monza. Ortelli, driving the ORECA Courage LC70-Judd, lost control of the car, which spun off the pavement and onto the grass. The prototype then became airborne, barely missing Allan McNish in the Audi R10 TDI. And then things got really ugly. The Courage touched back down and went into a series of cartwheels, shedding bodywork all over the place before crashing into the wall and landing right-side up. Ortelli suffered a broken ankle, but Team ORECA reports he is otherwise in good health. As you'll see in the video, things could have been a whole lot worse. You know. A few inches here, a few tenths there...
We wish him a speedy recovery.
[Sources: Maximum Motorsport, Crash.net]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Carlos @ Apr 27th 2008 6:15PM
Holy crap that was insane! He was so close to the R10.
BKadalur @ Apr 27th 2008 6:19PM
that was ridiculous. so crazy it almost looks like cgi...
Chicagocat74 @ Apr 27th 2008 6:20PM
Crazy how someone can go through all that and come out with just a broken ankle. Then there is Dale Earnhardt who just smacked into a wall and looked like a normal crash that wasn't nearly as bad. But then again, I guess it was a whole lot worse, the guys dead... =/
nist7 @ Apr 27th 2008 6:30PM
Yup.
The reason why these really spectacular crashes are not as bad as people think is because of simple physics. When the car is rolling and spinning and doing all that stuff it's losing kinetic energy the whole way. And so when it DOES hit something, it's not nearly as sudden of a deceleration and the safety systems built into these cars are more than capable of protecting the driver.
Now if you look at a "harmless" and "simple" crash like Earnhardt's, it's far more deadly because he basically went from 190mph to 0mph in less than a second. His car and his body had to absorb all that energy straight on.
why not the LS2LS7? @ Apr 27th 2008 7:00PM
Also, Earnhardt wasn't wearing the HANS device. And apparently (I say apparently since due to Bush we can't see the autopsy reports) he died of precisely the type of injury that the HANS device is supposed to prevent in exactly the kind of accident the HANS device was designed for.
Chicagocat74 @ Apr 27th 2008 7:09PM
Seems Bush is responsible for everything! 911, the oil crisis, Earnhard's death, child assisted suicide.. Its outa control! Who's Hans? Does he know about all this?
why not the LS2LS7? @ Apr 27th 2008 10:57PM
Wow, you're ignorant and your friends who voted you up are too. Jeb Bush pushed for and quickly signed a bill in Florida (where Earnhardt crashed and died) to prevent public access to his autopsy records.
Here's a picture of Jeb mugging for the camera with Earnhardt's wife after eagerly signing a bill the prevented access to the autopsy records of Dale Earnhardt.
http://espn.go.com/rpm/wc/2001/0329/1164031.html
Maybe you automatic W defenders could do a better job at knowing what is even going on before you act? Here you don't even know which Bush it is in play...
Smeagle @ Apr 27th 2008 11:56PM
Hold on LS2LS7, remember you're talking to an international audience here. Much as I try to stay up to date with international politics, if someone mentions "Bush" there's an assumption that it's W they are talking about. Don't be so quick to judge.
Chicagocat74 @ Apr 28th 2008 2:39AM
Thanks for yer back up there Smeagle, but anyone who gets on here to argue is retarded. Its just the internet. I know nothin about the racing circut nor do I know anything about any bush for that matter. Im as far left as it gets. Im the furthest thing from a bush defender...
Rocketboy @ Apr 28th 2008 10:25AM
Who cares? Why SHOULD we be able to she his autopsy? That's a better question then who do we need to blame.
Cesare @ Apr 27th 2008 6:35PM
What a Crash! I was there, behind the fence, just few meters away where the car stopped. Look the front wheel flying away at 0.17 in the video. It goes over the barriers just for landing in the middle of a gravel road that runs along the track. People was leaving the stands for reaching the finish line for the "finale" by that road but luckily nobody was here in that moment!
However a great race as usual!
Kipp @ Apr 27th 2008 6:39PM
What caused the car to spin? It looked like it was tracking decently well. Perhaps this series doesn't have electronic traction control, and for some reason the driver decided to stomp on the throttle...? I know this sounds dumb, but what happened?
Cesare @ Apr 27th 2008 6:44PM
It looks to me a supsension or transmission damage. Something that blocked the rear left wheel causing the car to spin and flip.
Smeagle @ Apr 27th 2008 8:45PM
It could have been an aero balance issue or a brake bias issue. Difficult to tell when you aren't in the drivers seat though. Often as cars are braking hard, the portion of normal force on each tire due to downforce decreases at a different rate, front to rear. I'll be interested to know more.
Neil Schelly @ Apr 28th 2008 8:09AM
More safety stuff like a HANS _may_ have helped, but consider that his seatbelts ripped from the impact. That's a tremendous amount of force that was exacted on his chest. Larger crumple zones are about the only thing that could have had a significant effect on altering the outcome of that crash, but it's all speculation at this point anyway. That was a nasty crash and anyone who watches racing of any sort regularly knew it the second it happened.
-N
EuropaCar @ Apr 27th 2008 7:09PM
wow insane.
Yago Bal @ Apr 27th 2008 8:41PM
That's nice....
What about the race results? Or so we still believe motorSPORTs are a crash show?
By the way: the last F1 was 12 hours ago... Hope to hear about it this week. :)
I'm joking around, but it amazes me how a crash report is published here so fast, while the real sport news take half a dozen days to reach the blog...
siliconcenturion @ Apr 27th 2008 9:04PM
That'll buff out.
Travis @ Apr 27th 2008 9:05PM
obligatory "that'll buff right out"
Seoultrain @ Apr 27th 2008 10:56PM
did the audi drop a banana peel?