Rowan Atkinson had a fortunate escape last night when his McLaren F1 supercar came off the road, crashed into a tree and burst into flames.

Advertisement

The comedy actor – best known as the star of Blackadder and Mr Bean and soon to appear in cinemas in spoof spy sequel, Johnny English Reborn – will be considering himself as lucky as an extremely lucky thing after he walked away from the crash with just a minor shoulder injury.

No other vehicles were involved in the incident, which took place on the A605 at Haddon near Peterborough at 7:30pm last night, but according to reports, Atkinson waited with a fellow motorist until an ambulance arrived.

A spokeswoman for Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service said: “Crews brought the fire under control by 8:13pm. They made the vehicle safe and used one hose reel to put out the fire.

“There was one casualty but he was not trapped.”

More like this

Atkinson is well known as a lover of fast cars and recently garnered major respect among petrolheads by topping the leaderboard for Top Gear’s Star in a Reasonably Priced Car competition, clocking a record lap time of 1 minute 42.2 seconds.

The McLaren F1 he was driving at the time of the crash is one of the fastest production cars in the world, boasting a top speed of 230mph.

Advertisement

Atkinson is expected to be discharged from hospital later today.

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement