24 Hours of Le Mans: Alan McNish crashes out in his Audi R18

The 2011 24 Hours of Le Mans has taken a dramatic turn just 13 laps into the race, as Audi driver and ex-winner Alan McNish crashed out of the race in spectacular fashion.

Audi got off to a great start, and had all their three cars in the top three positions when McNish met with an accident involving the #58 Ferrari Anthony Beltoise, who was trailing being lapped by McNish at the time.

The Ferrari driver closed the small gap McNish had in order to pass him, unaware of the Audi's presence. The #3 Audi R18 got shunted off the track as a result, and raced through the gravel trap to meet the fences at triple digit speeds.

The speed of impact was so high that debris flying off the car cleared the fences, and the car almost did too. McNish however emerged unhurt, and managed to walk away from the crash after marshals pulled him out of the mangled remains of the R18.

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Audi has won six of the last seven editions of the race, and has lost the title just once to Peugeot. With McNish's car gone, the two remaining R18's now have the onus to get the German carmaker its seventh 24-Hours of Le Mans title.

 Read More about the second Audi that met with a serious crash at the Le Mans Race >>