24 Hours of Le Mans 2022: ‘He must have missed that’ – Scary moment driver doesn’t see rival and spins off

The 24 Hours of Le Mans 2022 saw a number of incidents within the first hours of daylight action at the iconic endurance race.

After a chaotic start to the race, a few hours later there was another crash that could have been much, much worse, but for some fast reactions.

There was a dramatic moment for Pierre Ehret in his #75 Iron Lynx Ferrari as he spun off at the Porsche Curves.

Ehret did not appear to see Francois Perrodo zipping through on his inside in his AF Corse LMP2 ORECA. But for some very quick thinking, there could have been a much worse collision.

As Martin Haven, on commentary for Eurosport at the time, explained: “On the inside, he turns in because he needs to make it round the corner, he must have missed that.

“Two gentlemen drivers who have spent a lot of time in the championship and do a lot of racing.”

It was a dramatic moment just seconds after the beginning of the iconic event as dust flew up from the gravel and the cameras attempted to flash back to the crash.

Replays showed that the car was stuck between two other vehicles and ended up having to dive into the gravel. The car had to be craned back onto the track.

The 90th edition of the world’s most famous endurance race certainly got the welcome it deserved minutes before the cars let rip at the start of the race.

As the helicopter zipped above the start line very low, it proceeded to deliver the French flag via two soldiers on zip lines in the pre-race ceremony.

The moment was greeted with a huge roar of approval from the spectators to mark the start of the race.

HOW CAN I WATCH 24 HOURS OF LE MANS?

Enjoy the action ad-free on the Eurosport app and via eurosport.co.uk. Download the Eurosport app now for iOS and Android. You can sign up for discovery+ for just £6.99 per month or £59.99 annually.

We will also have rolling coverage on the eurosport.co.uk website and our social channels.

Live coverage started on Wednesday afternoon with practice sessions and qualifying for Hyperpole. There was more live action on Thursday evening followed by continuous coverage of the main race, which started at 2pm BST on Saturday, June 11.