Mansell

[nickliv]

'Was taken away in an ambulance, but was later described as "fine" by the organisers'

"fine" = a big girls blouse?

Discuss

[smokie]

Concussed apparently.

[nickliv]

Nah, he always talks like that 

[Snoring Rhino]

Some footage, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtzSZUjXHXk

[DelBoy]

An erstwhile Mansell fan   

Del

[lofty]

the 24 minutes of le mans.drowned his sorrows in rasberry ripple

[Jason]

'Was taken away in an ambulance, but was later described as "fine" by the organisers'

"fine" = a big girls blouse?

Discuss

It was a necessary precaution. Having had a tyre go at one of the quickest parts of the track, he would be taken to the med centre for evaluation. S.O.P.

Being released as fine is a good outcome.

[Skid Lid]

I did speculate that he may have begged them to take him away in an ambulance because his boys were going to kill him!

[Dangermouse]

Our thoughts were he saw a track-side pie van and was momentarily distracted

[geoffd]

Does anyone know how badly damaged the car was?
We wondered if a driver with more experience of endurance racing might have dragged it back to the garage, rather than worrying about a little bump on the head...

[Bob U]

the 24 minutes of le mans.drowned his sorrows in rasberry ripple

Did they tow his car away or just cone it off

[Brad Zarse]

Does anyone know how badly damaged the car was?
We wondered if a driver with more experience of endurance racing might have dragged it back to the garage, rather than worrying about a little bump on the head...

That's what I was thinking - think back a couple of years, and you'll remember Alan McNish, barely able to walk, car crabbing, absolutely wrecked - but he got the car back to the pits, and despite the fact that his team mates had to drive 11 and 12 hours each, the team still managed to finish the race, in 3rd position I believe.  I can't believe that Nigel was so badly injured, that he couldn't just limp the car back, get it fixed, and then slump in a corner.......it's not even as if the car was badly damaged. 

Maybe he's so used to F1, where damage spells the end of your race, that he just forgot?
 

[hgb]

Does anyone know how badly damaged the car was?
We wondered if a driver with more experience of endurance racing might have dragged it back to the garage, rather than worrying about a little bump on the head...

Bas Leinders brought the Marc VDS Ford GT back home and that one looked very second hand. The Ginetta didn't look too badly damaged. I wonder what really went on. Why did they send out a fire brigade when there was clearly no fire ? I mean, everybody could see that.

[Nordic]

Does anyone know how badly damaged the car was?
We wondered if a driver with more experience of endurance racing might have dragged it back to the garage, rather than worrying about a little bump on the head...

Our grandstand was directly opposite the dumping ground at the end of the pit straight.

Mansells car seemed to have little in the way of bodywork damage and the wing was still on, so we assumed it had been a side impact

The rear right hand wheel did seem to be dragging and the crew could not just roll the car off the ramp, maybe because the other rear tyre was flat or something was broken. I dont think it was mobile under its own power.

The crew did not want pictures taken of the car and kept pushing photographers away before it was covered up.

[Christopher]

Just my thoughts........

If you watch the footage, that is linked above, you can see that one of the marshals seems very concerned and repeatedly looks into the face of Mansell, and makes no attempt to get him out of the car, plus is beckoning the medics very enthusiastically.

Also, there appears to be no movement from Mansell either. You don't see his helmet moving about round the side of the intake (but that could be the hans device holding his head up / restricted).

At the time I suspect they reacted as they thought necessary, it is easy for us to sit behind our TV screens fuelled by little green bottles and comment on footage that only shows the tail end of the accident. Has anyone got a link to footage of what led to the first impact on the other side of the track?

When McNish had his big one in 2004, that put him out of the race (but not the car), was it perhaps a case of him simply getting going before the marshals could react properly, or was it a case he was not suitably concussed at the time of impact to prevent him from driving.

All too easy to criticise whingeing Nigel when we don't know the full story.