Formula 2 driver rolls over 2 cars in wild crash ahead of Austrian Grand Prix

Saturday is qualifying day in Formula 1, but the feeder series go racing Saturday and Sunday — and it took just moments for things to get out of hand at the Red Bull Ring.

Formula 2's sprint race is the final session before F1 qualifying Saturday. It's a session where the top 10 from qualifying are reversed, meaning the fastest car starts 10th, and the P10 qualifier starts on pole.

In a race with no mandatory pit stop and just a 28-lap run time, things can get wild and opportunistic. The three cars involved in Saturday's red flag wreck learned just that.

Wild F2 crash sends car flipping over multiple other cars

It all played out on lap two of F2's Austrian sprint race heading into turn 3, the slowest and tightest turn on the course.

Watch closely at :04 in the video above — three cars go into turn three at once, which is a recipe for disaster (two cars into it can be on its own).

Luke Browning (Williams Driver Academy) enters as the blue car on the outside, while Arvid Lindblad (Red Bull Junior Team) was on the inside ... until he became the middle car.

French driver Sami Meguetounif jumps to the inside in a daring move that ultimately was not on. From above you can see Meguetounif run out of space on the apex.

Meguetounif's car goes flying over the top of Lindblad and Browning and comes to a rest upside down.

More angles show the horror of Meguetounif's flip

When the crash was broadcast, cameras quickly diverted from the scene and the race went to a red flag.

Luckily, all drivers walked away from the crash OK, including Meguetounif after safety crews flipped his car back over.

Cameras eventually gave us a closer angle of Meguetounif's tumble. The first angle shows Lindblad close the door on Meguetounif, although it was a very late lunge. The broadcast follows with Lindblad's extraordinary on-board camera, where Meguetounif is nowhere in sight until their tires meet.

Meguetounif's car goes fully above Lindblad's cockpit, then starts to rotate as it goes over Browning's machine, and goes over again as it returns back to the racing surface upside down. Incredibly, if you pause at the right moment at about 0:22 in the video above, Meguetounif's car is upside down above the Williams machine, nearly mirrored at 180 degrees to Browning.

Another round of applause for the halo

This could've been a horrifying crash if not for the safety advancements made in formula racing in recent years. The halo is a structure that is above the driver's cockpit in order to prevent and protect racers from moments like this where wheels, cars and debris go flying.

Since being introduced across the formula racing ladder in 2018, its usefulness has seemingly come into play every single year

Today, both Lindbland and Browning were protected by the flying car/wheels thanks to the halo.

One of the most terrifying incidents where the halo was a savior came at the 2021 Italian Grand Prix when Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen came to blows, sending the Red Bull and its rear-right wheel directly above the Mercedes cockpit.

Charles Leclerc was also left feeling thankful for the halo when Fernando Alonso went flying above his Alfa Romeo heading into turn 1 during the Belgian Grand Prix.