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Last weekend's Monza round of the Le Mans Series was incident-packed to say the least, and I was nearly caught up in the most dramatic moment of all, when my friend Stephane Ortelli had an enormous crash at the Rettifilo chicane, late in the race.
I had just turned in to the first right-hander after the start-finish straight and was starting to get the car lined up for the second part of the chicane, when I saw a cloud of dust out of the corner of my eye. I immediately pulled out wide and lifted off in case someone had spun on the entry and was going to come across the track in front of me.
Then as I got the car straight I saw him - and it was obvious it was Steph because of the helmet - cart-wheeling across in front of me. I had to avoid bits of gearbox, wings, suspension and Christ knows what else, that was dancing around.
Stephane Ortelli, Oreca Courage-Judd © XPB/LAT |
There was a split-second when I thought about stopping the car and getting out. But what could I do? The reality is that I'm a driver, not a doctor. I then radioed the Audi team and asked them to send our doctor to help, but the circuit's medical team already had it under control.
