Capello crashes early on at Monza

Capello is believed to have clipped the Rollcentre Racing Pescarolo on the back straight while running fourth, having just pitted from the race's first safety car period.

The Audi R10 TDI then spun onto the grass, got airborne and nearly flipped before coming back to ground on all four wheels, with significant damage to both the front and the rear of the car.

Capello brought the car back to the pits as the safety car was recalled for the incident, and amazingly lost only nine laps for significant repairs.

"I don't know what happened but it looked like he got hit from behind by another car," said McNish. "It launched the car into the air and hit the barrier quite hard."

"The [Audi] guys were instantly on top of the job and basically replaced everything around the chassis and the engine and got the car back out in a matter of minutes.

"We are definitely out of contention for anything like a good points haul in the race."

McNish added that the damage to the car was significant, and required more than a simple change of bodywork.

"There was quite a lot of suspension damage," he said. "They had to replaces the driveshafts, uprights and some of the parts on the rear. In that respect, the well-drilled Audi squad has allowed us to be back out on the track when I would say 95% of the teams would still be in the pits."

McNish also accepted that the incident was a massive blow to his title hopes.

"In a short championship and such a competitive one, you can't afford to drop the ball at any point."

Capello rejoined the race in 42 position, four laps down on the next car in the field.

The two Peugeots of Nicolas Minassian and Stephane Sarrazin led comfortably from the beginning of the race, with the No.2 Audi of Mike Rockenfeller having worked its way up to third having started from the pits.