Coming into the final race of the season, Coulthard was lying third in the FIA Championship behind Hill and Schumacher. With Johnny Herbert and Jean Alesi challenging, the Scot needed the win to cement his third position and end a successful season on a high.

After qualifying second, fractionally slower than his teammate Hill, Coulthard started well, overtaking the sister Williams before for first corner. Coulthard went on to lead for the first nineteen laps of the race before Williams decided pit him for new tyres. Hill had already stopped and with little time separating the two, Coulthard needed to make the stop fast and efficient.

The Adelaide pit entrance is a somewhat sharp affair. The entrance bends almost immediately to the right, following the line of the track, (a severe right-handed hairpin.) Normally over the course of the race weekend, drivers come in and out of the pits many times, so this stop should have been no different to the last but not this time!

David proved without doubt that the dumbest thing you can do is to crash whilst in the lead of the race, (except crashing on the warm-up lap – he managed that at the Italian Grand Prix that year.) However, it is dumber is to crash in the pits!

When faced with the sharp right in the pit lane, Coulthard failed to slow sufficiently and understeered into the outside pit wall.

David said about his almost laughable exit from the race: “We’ve looked at it with Renault and there was a problem. When I braked for the corner everything was normal and I slowed down. When you change down a gear there is an idle strategy on the engine, which keeps it ticking over. When you are on the brakes and not requiring any power, suddenly you see the engine accelerate.”

“So I was driven towards the wall. In that situation you dip the clutch and brake more, but it was slippery and by the time I’d done that, it was straight into the wall. It’s something that happens often in the pit-lane but never out on the circuit. I’m convinced that’s what happened, although it looked like I just went in too quickly.”

Renault’s investigation showed that the engine idle had caused the engine to over rev and drive the car forward but Eric Faron from Renault added: “The engine pushed him a bit and because the track was slippery he under-steered straight into the wall.”

Click here to get the full story and picture board of the crash, including driver quotes and evidence.

Crash Details
Approximate speed of crash.	Embarrassing, about the speed of a three legged dog.
Damage caused.	The Williams’ right front suspension was mangled.
Who / what was to blame	Only circumstance.
Anyone hurt?	Pride.
Any action against those involved?	No, why punish the mistake when world wide humiliation in the press was more than sufficient.

Original story by Tris