Sergio Hernandez was able to escape with a bruised foot from his heavy accident during the opening race of the Worl𒁏d Touring Car Championship meeting on the streets of Porto.

The🌸 BMW Team Italy-Spain driver had qualified down the order after a tough qualifying session at the Portuguese street circuit, which left him in the middle of the pack for the rolling start when race one got underway.

A slow start from Tom Coronel backed up a number of drivers behꦯind, and - with cars going three wide - Hernandez tᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚouched wheels with the LADA of Jaap van Lagen.

That contact saw Hernandez go heavily into the concrete barrier 🦂on the start-finish straight, destroying the front of his car and leaving the Spaniard ne🦋eding a trip to hospital.

💜Luckily, Hernandez escaped without broken bones and is expected to make a quick recov𓂃ery from the bruising he sustained in the impact.

"I'm okay, although my foot still gives me a lot of pain," he said. "The doctors say that I will be much better in a few days. The impact was really hard. But fortunately the BMW 320si WTCC 🐬is an extr𓆉emely safe vehicle."

Dutch driver van Lagen also escaped injury, although the damage sustained in the accident was enough to rule the LADA driver out of ♔the remainder of the weekend.

"It was a real pity but just one of those racing incidents," he said. "I made a great start and I was confident that we could move up the order but then I ended up with nowhere to go, so my weಞekend was over before it had begun. These things happen in racing but it's still very disappointing."