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Old 8 Jan 2017, 13:31 (Ref:3701011)   #1
Gingers4Justice
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First Lap Human Error at Le Mans

For anyone who's been lucky enough to be track side at the start of the world's greatest motor race, the start of Le Mans is one of the most dramatic spectacles in motor sport - and that's despite the fact that it's very rare that anything happens of significance, at least as far as the main protagonists are concerned, within the opening 8 miles of the race.

The lack of opening lap drama is something quite extraordinary. In a typical Formula One season, you could probably expect 4-5 incidents on just the first corner alone, in a field of just 22 cars.

Of course, Le Mans can never be won on the first lap and drivers will be doing everything they can to keep it on the grey stuff - but the fact that year after year, every single driver seemingly drives without fault on the opening lap, without so much as a gentleman driver locking up with cold brakes, is something special.

As far as I'm concerned, the last non-mechanical incident to occur on the first lap was 18 years ago, when Hiroki Kato span his BMW V12 LMR at the Dunlop Chicane:

https://youtu.be/CYvdNNjt5vo?t=28m50s

I'd be interested to know if this is indeed the last first-lap incident - have you seen something during the first lap that the cameras didn't catch?
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