Oops! Watch the flight of the Valkyrie(‘s door) on its race debut

Anyone getting major Ken Miles/Christian Bale vibes right now? “The bloody door won’t close!”

Nope, not the best start to life in the World Endurance Championship for the Aston Martin Valkyrie: after lining up 18th out of 18 cars in the Hypercar class in Qatar, the #009 of Martin Sorensen encountered an unfortunate problem not quite 10 per cent into the 1,812km race distance. Oh dear.

On lap 32 of the 335-lap season opener in Qatar, the Valkyrie’s right-side door sprung open and with Sorensen unable to reach up and shut it, the Dane was immediately ordered into the pits.

But the door never got there. A few corners later it was blasted skywards, and presumably retrieved by a marshal who’ll be going home with an excellent souvenir tonight.

Still, when Ken Miles had his door issue at Le Mans in 1966 he (sorta) went on to win the race. Maybe this is actually a good omen for Aston and the - admittedly glorious sounding - Valkyrie?