A Ferrari 458 driver played his cards well after hitting a pothole and suing the city council in England,  last May.

It took several months for the court to reach a decision, but in the end, Scott Nicholas, the supercar’s owner, won £10,000 ($12,540), as a result of damaging his prized jewel, Mirror reports.

“I was driving along the road at about 10.30 pm in May last year, when I hit something on the road. The passenger side door airbag went off, and I nearly crashed. I thought I’d hit something and then I couldn’t believe when it was a pothole“, Nicholas said.

“I could have knocked someone into the other lane of traffic and caused a crash. I was lucky nobody was heading towards me. When the airbags go off, they go off like an explosive charge. It was a good job there was nobody in the passenger seat“, he added. “The car is my pride of joy, I don’t take it out very often.“

Besides the airbag exploding, which created around £6,000 ($7,525) of damages, the alloy wheel was completely destroyed, costing another £3,000 ($3,760) to replace, and the suspension had to be realigned after the impact.

However, before the work was carried out, the Ferrari 458 was kept off the road for three months, which was the necessary time required for the parts to arrive and be installed.

Nicholas should get the money in approximately three weeks, but he will donate it to charity.

“It was never about the money, it was the principle“, he commented. “In court, I just felt they were obnoxious. They threw everything they could to try and get out of paying out. They even tried to say a supercar shouldn’t be on the road.“

This is the largest compensation ever to have been paid by the Peterborough City Council over a pothole related damage, a spokesman said.