IN flames but grateful to be alive, this is the moment when racing driver Hunter Abbott made a miraculous escape from a horror crash at Oulton Park.

Fans watched open-mouthed as the 26-year-old from Maidenhead spun off the Cheshire circuit on Saturday while competing in a British GT4 Championship race.

Hunter’s Ginetta G50 car was bumped by another driver approaching Cascades, sending him careering into a 116mph spin which flipped him into the air and over a barrier.

Within seconds, the £50,000 car burst into flames, but marshals were quickly on hand to put the fire out as Hunter wriggled free of the tangled wreckage suffering from nothing more than minor burns to his face, hands and wrists.

Abbott said: “The car went straight towards the barriers almost head on. As soon as I was on the grass I was just a passenger and thought to myself it was going to be a big one.

“When it hit the ground for the fourth or fifth time, I thought it had better end soon!”

For more pictures and reaction to the Oulton Park crash, see pages 70-71.