Hey, it’s a desert rally race along a cliff! What could possibly go wrong oh dear everything. Everything has gone wrong.
Here’s the video, taken during Stage 4 of the Dakar Rally in Argentina. There’s plenty of screaming, so watch your volume:
Here’s a bit of context, via Road and Track:
The team of Carlos Sainz and Lucas Cruz were trying to make up time they had lost due to some navigational errors. Unfortunately, not long before the finish line between Tupiza and Oruro, Sainz was pushing a bit too hard and their Peugeot decided to tip over instead of make through that corner. The car barely missed some unwise spectators before it began its barrel roll down the hill.
Carlos Sainz is a rally legend, as well as the father of F1 driver Carlos Sainz Jr., and fortunately he walked away complaining of nothing more than back pain, according to Road and Track. But as they also note, those spectators standing right on the edge of the curve somehow walked away too. Rally fans have a long tradition of crowding the track, which always makes me nervous upon watching highlights. But it seems especially foolhardy to camp out right there, on the outside of a blind and tight curve.
That seems like the absolute worst place for people to be standing. Fortunately, everyone seems to be mostly okay. Credit whoever invented the roll cage, because my goodness was that a violent tilt down the hill. (Note: apparently the inventor of the roll bar was John Aley. So there’s that.)
