Massive lightning strike captured over Silverstone race course

This is the moment that a huge lightning bolt hit the track at Silverstone last Sunday, with the force of it causing the camera to shake.

Ben Webb, 29, was filming on his phone to show how heavy rain and wind after a freak storm had brought racing to a halt at the historic Northamptonshire track.

But only moments later, a massive bolt lights up the abandoned track with a loud crack, causing the camera to shake.

Ben, a building control engineer from Chippenham, Wiltshire, said: ‘When it happened we were all shocked to be honest, everyone jumped out of their seats including myself.

‘The marshals from the race were only 60 feet away on the track when it happened.It was the start of the day, they did a warmup but the race had been suspended because of the weather.

‘I decided to take a video to show my mates the rain and then it just happened right in front of us.’

Ben also explained how race marshals were lucky to escape, with the lightning appearing to strike near where they are standing.

‘It’s the marshals that were in the most trouble. If the lightning had come down 60 feet in the other direction then it would have been a different story’, he said.

‘There was even meant to be the 1st junior race on that day but it was cancelled and I think they did it the next morning instead.’

The main race scheduled for the day was a British Touring Car Championship event and the warmup laps for the day were expected to take place at around the time the lightning initially hit.

‘From start to finish it lasted between 45 minutes and an hour. At first it was just rain and clouds but then the lightning happened’, Ben said.

‘They had called the main racing off before but they started again quite soon after the storm had passed.’