Rally car somersaults in the air at World Rally Championships

One of the lures of rally driving is the fact that a crash can take place at any moment because of the challenging angles and high speeds.

World Rally Championship-2 driver Quentin Gilbert suffered an unlucky face-plant crash on the big Fafe jump on Stage 16 of the WRC in Portugal

Gilbert’s Skoda Fabia R5 went grille-first into the dirt after making a jump that most other competitors made without difficulty.

What was even worse was that the somersault crash took place within less than a mile of the finish line for the stage.

Gilbert and his codriver Renaud Jamoul both walked away from the crash and were fine after the roll but expressed their frustration over the crash.

"Renaud and I are fine, we are a little stiff but it's nothing next to our disappointment. We were doing a nice race and we were very close to the podium of the WRC2... We will come back stronger at the next rally" said Gilbert on his Facebook page.