Izzy Hammond, Richard Hammond’s daughter, was in a terrifying high-speed crash.
‘I saw the wall coming and knew I was going to enter it at speed,’ she said after crashing out of Formula E’s Evo Sessions event at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit in Saudi Arabia.
The 25-year-old content creator was competing in the Duals stage of the influencer-focused competition, which sees celebrities and online personalities go head-to-head for the fastest lap on behalf of professional teams.
Representing Team Senor Frogs, Hammond experienced understeer through turn 13 and slid into the barrier in a heavy collision.
‘It wasn’t a small crash,’ she said afterwards. ‘If you’re going to crash, you’ve got to really crash.’
Despite the force of the impact, Hammond emerged unhurt and was checked over by medical staff at the circuit.
‘Yeah, the car’s not in one piece though,’ she added. ‘I’m good.’ She declared on Instagram, ‘I’m alive!’
She also said in another video: ‘Massive apologies to my team [Lola]. They’ve been so amazing, and I return the favour by putting me car into a wall sideways, and destroying it. So that’s not great!
‘How did I do it? I don’t think I had enough heat in my tyres, so I was trying to break and I was trying to turn with no heated tyres so it all went a little bit t*** up and I hit the wall with 24Gs.
‘So, my neck hurts a little bit, but I am absolutely fine so thank you everyone that is concerned.
‘I’m fine, this stuff happens, and now I can say I’m a proper racing driver because I’ve had a monumental crash. I’m gonna go to bed now, and sleep off my concussion!’
In the seconds after hitting the wall, her thoughts turned immediately to her father.
‘My first thought when I was sat in that wall was “Oh my god, everyone’s watching, my dad’s watching. He’s gonna cry or something,”’ she said. ‘Can someone just tell him I’m OK?’
Her father is Richard Hammond, the former Top Gear and The Grand Tour presenter, who has survived multiple serious crashes during his television career.
In 2006, while filming for Top Gear at Elvington airfield near York, Hammond was driving a jet-powered dragster in an attempt to break the British land speed record when a tyre blowout caused the car to veer off the track at nearly 300mph.
He was airlifted to hospital and placed in an induced coma for two weeks.
In 2017, he was involved in another major accident while filming The Grand Tour, crashing a 1,200-horsepower Rimac Concept One during a hill climb. The car rolled and caught fire before he escaped with a fractured knee.
His daughter was racing in Saudi Arabia alongside influencers including Joshua Larkin, known as TheBurntChip, William Lenney, known as WillNE, Arthur Frederick, known as ArthurTV, and Ethan Payne, known as Behzinga.
The event also featured Khaby Lame and is the second edition of the Evo Sessions, following last year’s line-up, which included Sergio Aguero and Mr Beast.
While her session ended early, Hammond confirmed she was unharmed after the incident.
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