And it's pretty much the first, at least in Bernard Maylander's career.
On Thursday, they were doing their usual laps, first the medical car, then the safety car, and during this, an unprecedented accident occurred. After the tenth lap, the Aston Martin under Bernd Mayländer “snapped” and, arriving at the Parabolica corner at a speed of 270 km/h, spun with noble simplicity and landed on the tire wall. Maylander and his partner, Richard Darker, were not injured, but it was definitely an incomprehensible and alarming accident. As the driver later revealed, the brakes simply went out, and the ducking was very deliberate:
"At one point I just had to admit to myself, okay, that's it, we're not going to be able to stop, the car isn't slowing down as it should be. I had to react quickly, and I decided: I tried to turn the car. That's why you can see in the videos that I first steer slightly to the left, and then very hard to the right to make the car spin. That's what happened, we started to slide, but I didn't feel how much room there was left, and whether that would be enough to slow us down enough."
"Well, the asphalt and gravel did their job, and even though the impact was very scary and loud, we got through it quite well. I'm not in any pain, my neck wasn't sprained, and most importantly, my partner is fine. The Tecpro tested perfectly with the rubber walls. Now it's Aston Martin's turn to find out what the technical fault is," Maylander said, extremely collected.
