Mark Webber was looking for gap, a chink of fresh air that might serve as a springboard for his damage limitation campaign. The Australian was flat in seventh gear at the time, which equates to 190.14mph. It hadn't occurred to him that Lotus driver Heikki Kovalainen might brake...

The spectacular somersault that followed was typical of what can happen when one Formula One car rides over the wheel of another. The incident occurred on the ninth lap of last Sunday's Grand Prix of Europe, in Valencia, and arose because Webber – twice a winner for Red Bull this season – had taken a strategic gamble in the wake of an unprofitable opening lap, during which he slipped from second place to ninth. 

An early tyre change put him out of sync with the leading pack, but if he could find a bit of clear track he might be able to make full use of his car's potential and claw back a few lost positions later in the race. First, though, he had to pass the Lotus.

"Going down the back straight I was in Heikki's slipstream," he said, "and he moved a bit to the left. I thought, 'OK, he's letting me go', but 50 metres after that he went to the right. Fair enough, he was entitled to defend aggressively, so I just sort of sat there. I thought about trying around the outside, but he covered that move so I started to look again to the right."

"That's when he braked and I just thought, 'F***ing hell'..."

It wasn't a misjudgement, more a case of being tripped up by an unfamiliar foe. Ordinarily, the Red Bull drivers pass their Lotus counterparts only when lapping them, but circumstance had turned this into a legitimate battle for position. On the previous lap, with the Lotus a few seconds up the road, Webber had braked fully 80 metres later for the same corner. That's why he was taken by surprise.

It was a case of déjà vu for Webber, who went flying twice in as many laps when driving for Mercedes at Le Mans in 1999 - once during practice on Thursday evening, then again during his first lap out in the repaired car on Saturday. That, though, was the result of an aerodynamic quirk rather than physical contact.

For all the apparent ferocity of last weekend's accident, Webber had plenty of time to think. "The world seemed to slow down," he said. "I was wondering whether I might hurt myself and was scrolling the track through my mind, trying to work out whether or not there were any bridges to hit."

"I knew I was a long way up in the air, but wasn't sure exactly how far."

Contemporary F1 chassis are subjected to stringent crash, static load and rollover tests before being authorised for use - and the central part of the car, the driver's survival cell, must not deform. The impact tests are conducted at 22-33mph, which might not sound like much, but such speeds enable energy absorption rates to be measured accurately. The cockpit sides must be able to withstand a force equivalent to 250 tonnes.

"The landing wasn't too bad, with the car having righted itself," Webber said, "but the subsequent impact with the tyre wall was pretty hefty. I was lucky, though, because there was a fair amount of run-off area."

"If you're going to go through something like that, it wasn't such a bad place for it to happen."

Source: Telegraph