Richard Hammond crashed the Rimac Concept_One on June 10, 2017, after carrying too much speed into the final corner of a Swiss hill-climb demonstration. The car left the road, rolled more than 110 metres down a hillside and caught fire—but Hammond escaped before the fire intensified. The later explanation involved both his driving and the Rimac’s torque-vectoring system, not a proven software failure or battery defect.
What happened when Richard Hammond crashed the Rimac Concept_One?
Richard Hammond crashed a Rimac Concept_One during filming for season two of The Grand Tour on June 10, 2017. The accident happened at the end of a high-speed hill-climb demonstration in Hemberg, Switzerland. After taking the final corner too quickly, the electric hypercar lost its intended line, left the road, traveled more than 110 metres down a steep hillside, rolled several times and caught fire.
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Hammond survived because he was conscious and able to climb out before the fire intensified. He suffered a serious leg injury, described in early reporting as a fracture around the knee. The later explanation was not that the Rimac simply malfunctioned or that its battery caused the crash. The available reconstruction points to a combination of Hammond carrying too much speed into the final corner, the rear tires running out of usable grip and the car’s torque-vectoring system helping rotate the car as it began to run wide.
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The filming session had been under way in Switzerland since June 5. It involved tests of three very different cars for the season-two episode later titled “Past, Present or Future”: the Lamborghini Aventador S, Honda NSX and Croatian-built Rimac Concept_One. The segment concluded with a hill-climb-style demonstration at Hemberg.
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Hammond had completed the timed portion of the course, but the run was not effectively over from a driving point of view. He continued at speed toward the final corner. That mattered because the road ended soon after the bend, leaving very little room to recover if the car missed its intended line.
According to Rimac’s later account, the car exceeded 210 km/h during the run. That figure is not the car’s claimed top speed, and it does not mean Hammond crashed at maximum speed. It is the speed reported during the lap as the car approached the critical section of the course.
What was the Rimac Concept_One?
The Concept_One was a very limited-production electric hypercar, not a modified family car or a conventional performance vehicle with an electric motor added to it. Rimac’s technical description lists:
- Four permanent-magnet electric motors
- Independent control of torque at the individual wheels
- An 82-kWh battery
- 1,088 PS, or 800 kW
- 1,600 Nm of claimed torque
- A claimed top speed of 355 km/h
- 0–100 km/h acceleration in 2.6 seconds
Only eight production examples were planned, according to Rimac. Its four-motor layout was central to both the car’s performance and the later discussion of the crash. Instead of sending power through a conventional differential and relying mainly on mechanical hardware to distribute it, the Rimac could vary drive torque at each wheel extremely quickly.
How torque vectoring became part of the crash
Torque vectoring is intended to help a car turn. By sending more or less drive torque to individual wheels, the control system can influence the car’s yaw—the rate at which it rotates around its vertical axis—and help it follow the driver’s chosen line. In normal use, the intervention is designed to feel seamless.
At Hemberg, however, the system was operating at the edge of the available grip. Mate Rimac later reviewed the incident with Hammond using video footage, vehicle data and images from the crash. His explanation was that Hammond approached the final corner too quickly. As the car began to run wide, the all-wheel torque-vectoring system attempted to help the car turn rather than simply allowing it to continue straight toward the outside of the bend.
That intervention increased the car’s rotation and initiated oversteer. In simple terms, the rear of the car began to step outward while the front pointed more aggressively into the corner. Once the rear tires ran beyond the usable asphalt, there was no longer enough road for Hammond to complete the correction. The car left the course and headed down the hillside.
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Hammond did not initially accept every part of that interpretation. He recalled that the Concept_One had felt as though it was understeering during earlier attempts, meaning the front of the car appeared reluctant to turn. A sudden transition from that feeling to oversteer was difficult to understand from the driver’s seat. The most defensible explanation is therefore not “the car turned itself off” or “the software failed.” It is the interaction of an overly ambitious cornering approach, changing tire grip, Hammond’s steering and throttle inputs, and the torque-vectoring system’s response.
Why the Rimac went down the hill
The sequence can be understood in four stages:
- High entry speed: Hammond carried considerable speed into the final corner, even though the timed section had effectively finished.
- Loss of the intended line: The car could not remain on the driver’s planned path through the bend.
- Increased rotation: As the system tried to help the car turn, the rear tires lost usable grip and the car oversteered.
- No recovery space: Once the car crossed the edge of the asphalt, the steep hillside left no meaningful run-off area.
This is why reducing the accident to “Hammond missed a corner” is incomplete, but saying “the Rimac caused the crash” is also too broad. The cornering error created the situation; the car’s unusually fast torque-control response influenced how the loss of grip developed; and the course’s hillside determined the severity of the outcome.
Amazon and The Grand Tour initially said that the cause was unknown and under investigation. Those first statements reflected the information available immediately after the crash. They should not be confused with the later Hammond-Rimac reconstruction, which incorporated recorded vehicle data and a review of the incident.
The car rolled and caught fire
After leaving the road, the Concept_One traveled more than 110 metres down the slope. Contemporary accounts described it becoming airborne, tumbling and eventually coming to rest upside down. The wreck then caught fire.
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The loss of control and the subsequent fire are separate parts of the event. The available accounts establish that the car caught fire, but they do not establish a specific battery-cell failure, thermal-runaway mechanism or manufacturing defect as the definitive cause. It would therefore be inaccurate to say that the battery was proven to have caused the accident or that the fire was conclusively traced to one particular component.
Rimac acknowledged the fire in its post-crash account and said it wanted to prevent similar events in the future. The manufacturer also emphasized that the occupant cell remained sufficiently intact for Hammond to escape. That is significant evidence about the survival space in this particular crash, but it is not the same as calling the car “crash-proof” or treating the event as an independent safety test.
How Hammond escaped
Hammond was conscious after the crash and climbed out of the overturned car himself. He was then taken to hospital by air ambulance. Early reports referred to a fractured knee, while later summaries often describe the injury more generally as a broken leg. “Serious leg injury” is the safest general description when the exact source wording is not being quoted.
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The fact that Hammond walked away from a tumbling, burning hypercar does not mean he was uninjured. It means three important things happened in his favor: the occupant cell retained enough space, he remained conscious and mobile, and he escaped before the fire became more dangerous. Rimac’s comments about the structure should be attributed to the manufacturer rather than presented as an independent certification of the car’s crash performance.
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How The Grand Tour showed the accident
The crash became the closing dramatic event of the first episode of season two, “Past, Present or Future.” The episode presented the Lamborghini Aventador S as a representative of the past, the Honda NSX as the present and the electric Rimac Concept_One as the future. The Swiss hill-climb segment and the crash footage made the episode one of the most memorable installments of the series.
There is an important difference between what the program showed and what was later used to explain it. Viewers could see the car leave the course, tumble down the slope and burn. The technical interpretation involving entry speed, oversteer and torque vectoring came later through Hammond’s and Mate Rimac’s review of the footage and vehicle data.
For readers looking for the original segment, watch The Grand Tour season 2 on the service where it is currently available in your region. The episode is commonly identified as season two, episode one, “Past, Present or Future”; streaming catalogs and availability can vary by country and date.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Did Richard Hammond blame the Rimac?
Not ultimately. Hammond’s initial reaction included understandable uncertainty about how the car’s behavior had changed from apparent understeer to oversteer. But when he later drove the newer Rimac Nevera for a DriveTribe video in 2023, he explicitly accepted responsibility for the 2017 crash.
Hammond said he had never tried to avoid blame. He described the Rimac as extraordinarily fast and addictive, while acknowledging that its performance made it easy for a driver to keep exploiting the available acceleration and grip. He also noted that he continued beyond the finish line and that gravity and physics eventually imposed the limit he had failed to respect.
The later Nevera drive does not prove that the Concept_One was harmless, and the two cars should not be treated as mechanically identical. Its relevance is more specific: Hammond returned to the manufacturer’s newer electric hypercar and publicly described the earlier crash as his mistake rather than as a proven Rimac defect.
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The accurate short version
Richard Hammond crashed the Rimac Concept_One because he approached the final Hemberg corner too quickly and continued at high speed after the timed section. As the car began to run wide, its four-wheel torque-vectoring system tried to rotate it back toward the corner. The rear tires lost grip, the car oversteered, crossed the edge of the road and rolled down the hillside. It later caught fire, but Hammond had already escaped.
The evidence does not support claims that a confirmed software failure caused the crash, that the battery was proven to be the sole cause of the fire or that Hammond was uninjured. The best-supported account is a high-speed driving error complicated by the behavior of an exceptionally powerful, electronically controlled electric hypercar—and made far more severe by the lack of run-off beyond the road.
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Frequently Asked Questions
When did Richard Hammond crash the Rimac Concept_One?
Richard Hammond crashed the Rimac Concept_One on June 10, 2017, during filming for season two of The Grand Tour at a hill-climb event in Hemberg, Switzerland.
What caused Hammond’s Rimac crash?
The available reconstruction says Hammond approached the final corner too quickly. The car began to run wide, its torque-vectoring system helped rotate it, the rear tires lost grip and the car left the road.
Was the Rimac’s software proven to be at fault?
No. The sources reviewed do not establish a confirmed software failure or manufacturing defect. The crash is best explained as a high-speed cornering error combined with changing grip and the car’s torque-vectoring response.
Did the Rimac battery cause the fire?
The Concept_One caught fire after rolling down the hillside, but the available accounts do not prove a specific battery-cell failure or identify the battery as the sole cause of the fire.
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Hammond was conscious and escaped the overturned car before the fire intensified. He was airlifted to hospital with a serious leg injury, described in early reports as a fracture around the knee.
Did Richard Hammond accept responsibility?
Yes. In a 2023 DriveTribe video after driving a Rimac Nevera, Hammond said he accepted responsibility for the 2017 accident and had never tried to avoid blame.
The Bottom Line
Bottom line: Hammond’s crash was not established as a Rimac software failure or a battery-caused accident. He entered the final corner too quickly, the car’s torque-vectoring response contributed to a sudden oversteer transition, and the Concept_One left the road with almost no recovery space. Hammond escaped the burning wreck but suffered a serious leg injury and later accepted responsibility for the mistake.
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