In the world of motorsport, where cars thunder around tracks at between 100 and 200 miles per hour, every single component matters, from motorsport gears to the direction of fastening and washers.
Nowhere is this more evident than in the terrifying story of how a state-of-the-art Mercedes-Benz CLR racing car took flight and crashed, as well as the mysteries surrounding why it happened and its effect on one of the world’s biggest motor racing companies.
So what happened to make a sleek, aerodynamic machine take off, not once but three times?
A lot of the reasons behind this came from a mix of the unique nature of the Le Mans circuit with its particularly long and bumpy Mulsanne Straight, an exceptionally aggressive car design and poor fortune with his track position.
It all started during the qualifying sessions for the team of Mark Webber, Jean-Marc Gounon and Marcel Tiemann, the former of which took flight when leaving the slipstream of an Audi to overtake.
The CLR had a particularly short wheelbase and thus a lot of extra bodywork hanging over the car, which could be unbalanced by the turbulent air of that particular part of the track, especially when in the wake of another car and at the tops of hills, a situation only seen at the Mulsanne Straight.
This caused the car to land badly on its back, hurting Mark Webber, although a period of physical training helped him to recover in time for the race.
He would not even see the start of the race as during the half-hour warm-up session, Mark Webber’s number 4 car once again ended up on its roof, once again being flipped over following a Dodge Viper GTS-R.
He would take no further part in the 24-hour race. However, Mercedes themselves would pull out just four hours later before Peter Dumbreck’s scary somersault whilst following the Toyota GT-One of Thierry Boutsen.
This is the one that was captured around the world, providing a scary similarity to the incident that claimed the lives of 84 people in 1955.
Mercifully, Mr Dumbreck was completely uninjured but Mercedes pulled out of the race and largely left sports care racing entirely.