Sergio Hernandez was able to escape with a bruised foot from his heavy accident ♏during the opening race of the World ♛Touring Car Championship meeting on the streets of Porto.

The BMW Team Italy-Spain driver had qualified down the order after a tough qualifying session at the Portuguese street circuit, which left him in the middle of the pack for the rolli꧙ng start when race one got underway.

A slow start from Tom Coronel backed up a number of drivers behind, and - with cars going thꩲree wide - Hernande🎃z touched wheels with the LADA of Jaap van Lagen.

That contact saw Hernandez go heavily into the concrete barrier on the start-finish straight, destroying the front of his car and leaving the Spaniard nꦺeeding a trip to hosp🌺ital.

Luckily, Hernandez escaped witho🅷ut broken bones and is expected to make a qui♓ck recovery from the bruising he sustained in the impact.

"I'm okay, alt🍌hough my foot still gives me a lot of pain," he said. "The doctors say that I will be much better in a few days. The impact was really hard. But fortun😼ately the BMW 320si WTCC is an extremely safe vehicle."

Dutch driver van Lagen also escaped injury, although the dam🦄age sustained in tไhe accident was enough to rule the LADA driver out of the remainder of the weekend.

"It was a real pity but just one of those racing incidents," he said. "I made a great start and I was confident that we could move up the order but then I ended up with nowhere to go, so my weekend was over befor💝e it had begun. These things happen in racing but it's still very disappointing."