Astonished onlookers witnessed Ott Tanak hurtle off the side of the narrow mountain track, flip his car sideways and crash from the sky upside down at breakneck speed as the daredevil Estonian fell victim to treacherous terrain in the opening race of the defense of his World Rally Championship crown.

Followers watched the crash on the competition’s website and anxiously awaited news of Tanak and co-driver Martin Jarveoja’s survival after seeing the scorched state of the front right wheel and bonnet of their Hyundai car.

The horror accident miraculously resulted in mere technical damage and a shaky start to the season for Tanak and Jarveoja, who praised their safety equipment for saving their lives and posted a photo of their helmets once they had been released from a precautionary stay in hospital.

“I am happy to be alive,” Tanak prophetically admitted after the second stage, later retiring from the race and living another day in his attempt to retain his 2019 title, which he won with Toyota.

“It wasn’t the start of the season that we were looking for," he added after the crash. "But fortunately we are both okay thanks to the safety equipment.”

Tanak knew there could be trouble ahead after the first day of the race, writing: “It’s good to get our first rally with Hyundai Motorsport underway, but we faced some tricky conditions on these first two stages, the second stage especially.

“We heard from the gravel crew that it was freezing with a lot of black ice but in between it seemed to freeze even more. It was challenging and my aim was just to get through without any issues, without pushing and to have a consistent run.