Flipping Mercedes-Benz 1999

In April 1999 Mercedes launched the new Mercedes CLR which would take part in the upcoming Le Mans 24 Hour race. With tens of thousands of miles of testing on smooth race tracks, like Homestead and Hockenheimring, Mercedes felt that the car was quick enough to win the race, despite the short time spent on wind tunnel testing.
Three cars were entered, numbered 4, 5, and 6, each driven by a German, a French, and an English speaking driver, to allow efficient international marketing.
However, Mark Webber's #4 car became airborne at the Indianapolis corner during the Thursday night qualifying session. The car was rebuilt from scratch on Friday, modified for more downforce at the front, and entered in the Saturday morning warm-up. This time, Mark Webber only made it to the hump before the Mulsanne corner when the car backflipped in spectacular fashion, this time caught in mid-air by photographers. Luckily, neither Webber nor anyone else was injured on either occasion.

Despite the second incident and its echoes of the 1955 Le Mans disaster, Norbert Haug decided to go ahead and enter the other two cars in the afternoon, with additional modifications and instructions to the drivers not to follow others cars closely over humps.
Still after over 4 hours, driven at the time by Peter Dumbreck, the #5 CLR chased a Toyota GT-One and became airborne two turns before Indianapolis, somersaulting and landing over the barriers into the trees, all on worldwide live TV. The crowd in the Le Mans grandstands were terrified, seeing the pictures on large screens without hearing any comment for a long time. Amazingly, no injuries were sustained in this incident. The race continued under yellow flag conditions. The #6 CLR, driven by Bernd Schneider, was immediately retired.