There was more than a spot of chaos at the six-hour Le Mans Series race at Le Castellet this weekend after a safety car cock-up caused a multiple pile-up on the start-finish straight.
The green lights went on to restart the race, but the safety car never left the track. Which would have been fine were it not for the hump in Paul Ricard's pit straight, which meant the GT class, running behind the sports prototypes, couldn't see that the pace car was still on track. The result was a front half of the pack continuing at safety car pace, with the GT field accelerating up to race pace behind them.
The resulting carnage was more or less inevitable, and the ensuing demand for Porsche and Aston body parts was predictably brisk.
Fortunately the works Aston Martin AMR-One LMP1 managed to avoid the pandemonium behind it, and completed its first 'test' race, although several lengthy stops meant it only completed 50 per cent of the laps of the winning car.