If you’ve ever driven around on South Africa’s roads you’ve no doubt encountered a pothole or eight, but I’m not sure I can remember having a run-in with a drain cover before.

That’s exactly what happened to McLaren Formula 1 driver Jenson Button, who was lucky to escape unharmed during the Monaco Grand Prix practice runs yesterday.

Here’s Stuff:

“That was an incident we definitely don’t want to see again around here,” the 2009 Formula 1 world champion told reporters after the morning session was stopped early and welders made sure the cover was secure.

“We were lucky in a way that it just damaged the car, it stayed quite low on the ground which is good,” added the British driver…

Button said the drain cover smashed his car’s front wing, suspension, brake intake and damaged the floor.

Check out the high speed drain drama below:

[source:stuff]

[imagesource:here]