Nightmare start for the Astons

Fabio Babini was running fifth in the GT1 class when he lost control of his No. 69 car. He was shaken but otherwise unhurt.

The Italian's Aston DB9 smashed into both inside and outside walls damaging the car beyond repair after completing just four laps.

The shunt was of sufficient size to bring out the safety car for the first time in the race.

"There was oil on the track at the Porsche Curves, he [Fabio] went off and had a big crash," Babini's BMS co-driver Christian Pescatori told autosport.com.

"We lost a front wheel and there is bad damage all over. It is not possible to continue, the front, the back, everything is broken."

"Fabio is okay, though; he is shaken, and he has had a doctor see him. But he is okay."

Turner ripped the sump off the no. 007 factory Aston after running over a kerb and was forced to pit for a long stop so the team could repair the damage to the sump. The Englishman has yet to return to the track.

Turner was running third in his class when the safety car came out, but the car he shares with IRL IndyCar driver Tomas Enge and Andrea Piccini is now seven laps off the lead.

To add insult to injury for Aston, Prodrive's no. 009 car driven by Pedro Lamy, lost the lead of GT1 to Oliver Gavin's factory Corvette as both cars pitted during the safety car period.

After Prodrive Aston Martin's late switch to Michelin from Pirelli for this weekend's 24 Hours of Le Mans, BMS was the Italian tyre manufacturer's leading Aston representative.

Pescatori admitted that he was disappointed to be out of the race before he had even had a chance to see what they could do.

"It's very strange because it is a very long race so to go out on only the seventh lap feels bad," said the Italian.

"We had the new Pirelli tyre for Le Mans. It was very fast for the qualifying and we were confident for the race and now there is no chance to see how good it was.

"I think we could have taken on Michelin because we had a tyre for all conditions, cold, hot everything."