This apparent case of driver error led to a hard impact with the guardrail, strong enough to trigger the curtain airbags on this first-generation 1-Series.
We don’t know what went wrong, although nothing seemed off with the way in which that BMW 130i went around the chicane, right before losing control.
Moments after, the camera catches the BMW sliding off the track and onto the grass, hitting the wall with a lot of force. We seriously doubt that 130i went anywhere else afterwards on its own four wheels.
This scene feels more like one of those mystery documentaries where we’re just trying to guess what happened between event A and event B. The camera not panning in time certainly didn’t help.
One theory is that it may have understeered upon exiting the chicane, which is something people can tend to over-correct on the race track. Since the last thing we see is the rear end stepping out, it could have been a quick understeer-oversteer motion that made the driver lose control.