{"id":129223,"date":"2021-09-15T02:56:19","date_gmt":"2021-09-15T02:56:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=129223"},"modified":"2021-09-15T04:00:15","modified_gmt":"2021-09-15T04:00:15","slug":"schumacher-feared-death-in-heart-stopping-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=129223","title":{"rendered":"Schumacher feared death in 'heart stopping' crash"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michael Schumacher<\/a> has revealed he thought he was dying in the immediate aftermath of his terrifying crash on the opening lap of the 1999 British Grand Prix, that left him with a broken leg.<\/p>\n

Schumacher crashed heavily on the opening lap of the race at Silverstone, after a hydraulic failure in his Ferrari left him with no rear brakes at the end of the Hanger Straight, the fastest part of the circuit.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: <\/strong>Tennis legend slams 'absurd' Djokovic claim<\/strong><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

READ MORE: <\/strong>Surfers rescued as shark stops WSL finals<\/strong><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

With limited braking, the front wheels locked up and Schumacher had no control as he left the track, skating across the gravel trap into the tyre wall at 105 km\/h.<\/p>\n

With no tethers on the tyre barrier, the Ferrari ploughed straight through and into the concrete barrier, ripping the front off the car. <\/p>\n

\"Schumacher's<\/p>\n

The seven-time world champion attempted to climb out of his shattered car, but it was immediately obvious something was wrong, as he slumped in the cockpit.<\/p>\n

Speaking on the Netflix documentary Schumacher, to be released later today, the German detailed what happened in the immediate aftermath of the accident.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: <\/strong>Historic first as Bathurst 1000 moved again<\/strong><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

READ MORE: <\/strong>Superstar announces retirement from cricket<\/strong><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

"The front wheel had smashed the cockpit, and it was still stuck somewhere in there," he said.<\/p>\n

"I couldn't get out, and I was trying to pull my leg out, which was trapped. I'm lying there and notice that I'm calming down a bit.<\/p>\n

"Suddenly I feel my heartbeat fading, becoming slower and slower, until suddenly it stops completely.<\/p>\n

"I think, 'This is probably how it feels when you're on your way upstairs'."<\/p>\n

\"Michael<\/p>\n

Schumacher had sustained a double fracture to his lower right leg, which required a 90 minute operation to insert a pin into the break.<\/p>\n

Ironically, at the time Schumacher crashed, the race had already been stopped to deal with the cars of Jacques Villeneuve and Alex Zanardi, both of which had stalled on the starting grid.<\/p>\n

"The braking on the rear wheels was zero," said Ferrari spokesman Claudio Berro in the hours after the crash.<\/p>\n

\"Michael<\/p>\n

Schumacher's wife, Corinna, told the Netflix documentary that the German had been lucky throughout his career.<\/p>\n

"That was a moment when I thought, 'Oh my God' – but on the whole, we'd always made it through his races safely which is why I was certain he had a few guardian angels that were keeping an eye out for him," she said.<\/p>\n

\"Michael<\/p>\n

Schumacher was just eight points behind McLaren's Mika Hakkinen in the championship race at the time of his accident, which sidelined him from mid-July until the penultimate race of the season in mid-October, allowing Hakkinen to clinch his second world title.<\/p>\n

The documentary also explores Schumacher's reaction to Ayrton Senna's fatal crash<\/a> at Imola in 1994. <\/p>\n

The Brazilian died when he lost control<\/a> at the Tamburello bend, slamming into the concrete wall. His right front suspension came back into the cockpit, piercing his helmet and causing a fatal injury.<\/a><\/p>\n

Schumacher, who had emerged that season as Senna's biggest rival, was immediately behind the Brazilian when he crashed.<\/p>\n

\"Ayrton<\/p>\n

After winning the race, he detailed how then-Benetton boss Flavio Briatore broke the news.<\/p>\n

"We went up to the podium, he told us he is in a coma, but coma can be many things," Schumacher said.<\/p>\n

"It can be something which is going to be OK the next day.<\/p>\n

"The worst was two weeks later (at the Monaco Grand Prix) once I really had to accept that he is dead.<\/p>\n

"It was just something crazy," he added softly.<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/em><\/strong> clicking here!<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michael Schumacher has revealed he thought he was dying in the immediate aftermath of his terrifying crash on the opening lap of the 1999 British […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129223"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=129223"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129223\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":129225,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129223\/revisions\/129225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=129223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=129223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=129223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}