The driver of the red-and-white, Lark cigarettes-liveried March-BMW lay injured in his cockpit, in severe pain.
Seventy laps of the short circuit at Donington Park was hard work for anyone, let alone a 35-year-old for whom this had been the first race in Europe for five years.
That driver, 10 to 15 years the senior of most of his opposition, had just finished fourth in the latest round of the European Formula 2 Championship.