Frenchman Alexandre Prémat luckily escaped injuries when his Audi A4 DTM rolled several times at the end of the opening lap of the DTM race held in Adria, Italy on Sunday

At the start, Canadian Bruno Spengler overtook polesitter, his teammate at Mercedes, Gary Paffett.



A few corners later, Audi driver Mike Rockenfeller tangled with  points' leader Paul Di Resta (Mercedes) and both came off the track. The two benefited from a severe accident by Frenchman Alexandre Prémat at the end of the opening lap.

At high speed, the Audi driver tangled with Mercedes-Benz driver Maro Engel on the main straight, also went off the track and barrel-rolled his car several times.

Fortunately, Prémat was able to get out of the totally damaged wreck all by himself and was immediately responsive.

The 28-year old driver was taken to a hospital in Adria for observation. The race was interrupted for some 20 minutes.