adminF1 spun several times, smashing into a tree and ploughing into a road sign before catching fire on the opposite side of the carriageway.
The Mr Bean star (56) whose only injury was a fractured shoulder blade, managed to pull himself free from the wreck and was looked after by a passing motorist until emergency services arrived on the A605 at Haddon, near Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, at 7:30pm.
He was taken to Peterborough City Hospital but left in a wheelchair via a back door flanked by four security guards at about 3pm today without commenting on the accident.
A spokesman for Cambridgeshire Constabulary said police spoke to Atkinson at the hospital, where he was kept in overnight, as a matter of routine, but he has not been arrested.
Atkinson’s agent Peter Bennett-Jones said: “I haven’t spoken to him yet but I understand he has a fractured shoulder blade which is very painful and why he needed to stay in hospital overnight.”
Firefighters also confirmed the McLaren F1 was in flames after it span off the road.
A spokesman for Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service said: “There was a small fire in the engine which is at the back of the vehicle but it was quickly extinguished with one hose reel.”
The star is expected to be met with a huge repair bill for the car. Photographs of it being loaded onto the back of a tow truck show serious rear damage to the carbon fibre bodywork.
McLaren is set to take the vehicle to the company headquarters in Woking to ‘assess the damage’, a spokesman said. Any engine damage will mean sending the block back to BMW in Germany.
A McLaren spokesman said: “Our first concern was Rowan and we’re pleased that he is stable.
“We are discussing with his team about bringing it back to assess the damage and look at repairing it. It has a carbon-fibre chassis which is more reparable than normal cars.”
A neighbour outside the comedian’s large Oxfordshire home said Atkinson drove like an ‘idiot’ in the supercar.
The neighbour, who did not want to be named, said: “The way he drives I’ve nearly collided with him a few times. When he’s in that car he’s an absolute idiot.”
It is not the first time the Blackadder star has crashed the supercar, which can sprint from 0-60mph in just three seconds. In 1999, a year after buying it following the phenomenal success of his Mr Bean movie, he was in collision with a Rover Metro in Lancashire.
Recently appearing on BBC’s Top Gear “Star in a Reasonably Priced Car”, he listed the vast array of cars he currently owns, before setting the fastest lap in a time of 1min 42.2 sec.
The segment, recorded at the Top Gear test track at the Dunsfold Aerodrome, Surrey, sees a guest driving a standard car in a bid to get the fastest lap.
A Suzuki Liana was used for the shows recorded between 2002 and 2005, and a Chevrolet Lacetti between 2006 and 2010.
Atkinson set the record in a Kia Cee’d. In 1994, the British car magazine Autocar stated of the McLaren F1 “it has too much performance for the public road”.
But it added that it “will be remembered as one of the great events in the history of the car, and it may possibly be the fastest production road car the world will ever see”.
Atkinson, who has a passion for fast cars, has written articles about different vehicles for specialist car magazines.
Though his collection of cars changes regularly, he also has a £125 000 Aston Martin Virage, a vintage Rolls-Royce, and an elderly Morris Traveller, which he regularly drives around the Oxfordshire village where he lives in a £ 1million former rectory. He also has a £2.5million townhouse in Chelsea. – Daily Mail.
Online Reporter