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.
Marcus Simmons is the deputy editor of Autosport magazine. As a child he was a regular on the chalk banks of Thruxton, before becoming an MSA timekeeper at the age of 17. Shortly afterwards, he started reporting for Motoring News and joined the staff in 1990.
After abandoning a parallel Formula First career – which had been as incident-packed as his childhood equestrian exploits – he moved to Autosport in 1996. Since then he has had two stints as a freelance and a brief spell as editor of Motor Sport magazine, during which the revered green cover was revived, before rejoining Autosport in 2008. He lives in Teddington with his wife, stepsons, dog, cat and guitars, and has two daughters.
Why Piastri's F3 title was better than results suggested F3 rookie Oscar Piastri only just snatched the 2020 title with Prema Racing, but the setbacks he overcame to do so suggest that Renault's next Australian talent is one destined for the top F3
The top 10 BTCC drivers of 2020 The 2020 British Touring Car Championship will go down as a classic in which new winners graced the top step of the podium and an unloved chassis was resurrected into a champion. But who were the year's top performers? BTCC
The Villeneuve-esque 'engineer's dream' who lit up BTCC 2020 The Infiniti Q50 was completely redesigned, redeveloped and revamped by BMR and Laser Tools Racing for 2020. And the flamboyant brilliance of the driver behind the wheel was enough to snatch the title at the last gasp BTCC
The ground-effect wonder behind a generation of F1 stars Recently named as Autosport's greatest single-seater, Ralt's RT3 launched a plethora of superstar drivers through the early 1980s, and established the constructor as the go-to place for your single-seater weapon F3
What you need to know about F1 2021 Formula 1 won't get its big new regulations this year, but there are still plenty of changes to keep track of on the technical, team/driver and calendar fronts. Here's our guide to all the important details F1
How Ogier achieved a fitting Monte Carlo farewell Against pandemic-shaped odds, the World Rally Championship season opener went ahead in Monte Carlo last weekend as a familiar face again took top spot. But for an emotional Sebastien Ogier, his record-breaking eighth win meant more than most WRC
The Formula Vee maverick who has reached the top For a second consecutive year, a self-built machine has won the Formula Vee championship. But James Harridge's 'Maverick' comes from the very humblest of origins - with some parts even salvaged from a skip National
The point-less F1 teams of 1991 Six of the 18 teams that appeared in the 1991 Formula 1 season failed to score a point, whether through lack of funds to build and test new parts, under-par engines or management musical chairs. Here are their little-known stories F1
Highlights
Series
Explore
