Richard Hammond: I can't understand how Cristiano Ronaldo crashed Ferrari supercar

Poor Cristiano Ronaldo would appear to have over-reached himself at the wheel of his Ferrari 599 and will doubtless be paying a hefty price to learn his lesson.

Looking at the damage, he's lucky the price wasn't a lot higher.

Obviously my only thoughts were for the car! It's a horrible thing to see such a beautiful machine mangled.

I've driven the Ferrari 599 and it's astonishing. But I can't help wondering how on earth he actually managed to crash the thing?

It's a modern supercar, loaded with computers and gizmos to keep it safe and on the road.

There is loads of cutting edge technology employed to help it master its 612bhp.

Brains much bigger than mine whir away in its depths to keep the power going where it can be used and not sending the whole thing crashing on the first corner.

It's got a gearbox inspired by Formula 1 technology that can change gear in 100 milliseconds.

Buttons on the steering wheel allow the driver to alter the way the car feels and works for different road surfaces or weather.

The suspension can change its character by applying magnetism to itself. It's a modern supercar and has even been criticised for being too laden with safety technology, when part of the appeal of supercars is the chance to tame a wild beast.

But Ronaldo has proved that there's still ways to get it wrong. All that technology won't compensate for some mistakes.

In a way, we should be grateful to him for demonstrating that even the modern supercar still has that visceral thrill of danger.

And that there's still no substitute for knowing what you are doing. I'd recommend less power and learning how to do it properly in something a whole lot simpler.