A married couple from Oxfordshire were forced to retire from the world famous Le Mans race after the wife crashed their car on her first lap.

Amanda Stretton said she did not know how fast she was going when her £500,000 Lola-chassis racing car span into a wall on her third corner.

The crash was the result of ongoing engine problems Mrs Stretton and her husband Bob Berridge had encountered in the run up to the event in France.

Their team had tried three different engines in the canary-yellow vehicle in two days but had still not resolved the problem before the start of the 24 hour endurance race.

The race began on Saturday afternoon and Mr Berridge and teammate Gareth Evans completed 50 laps before Mrs Stretton took over the vehicle for her leg, and disaster struck.

She said: "When I was coming up to the third corner I just shot out at a right angle and hit the wall.

"At the time I was just more seriously angry than scared."

Mum-of-two Mrs Stretton, 34, from Beckley, was able to repair her vehicle at the side of the Circuit de la Sarthe, and get back to the pits.

She managed to complete another 12 laps but was forced to retire when the team's mechanics could not fix the engine problem.

The team is hoping to have another go next year.