British racing star thanks rival for pulling him out of burning Ferrari: 'I owe you my life'

Loek Hartog in China GT — Photo: © Credit: Top Speed

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British racing star thanks rival for pulling him out of burning Ferrari: 'I owe you my life'

Unbelievably heroic actions

Chris Deeley Editor

Experienced sports writer covering F1 and other motorsports since 2023

Sunday 6 September 2026 14:50

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Racing fans, take a moment today and be thankful that people like Loek Hartog exist.

Clips started to circulate on social media on Saturday morning of a scary crash in the ChinaGT Championship at the Shanghai International Circuit, familiar to F1 fans for hosting the Chinese Grand Prix. That initial clip saw two cars get together coming down to the hairpin braking zone, with one of them spinning into the side of Ollie Millroy's car.

Millroy's Ferrari immediately burst into flames...at which point the clip ended. Staggeringly, the real drama was only just beginning. Hartog, who was a few spots behind the crash, noticed that marshals and medical personnel were nowhere to be seen as the Brit sat in his car, which was still engulfed in flames.

Article continues under video

Harrowing footage captured on the 23-year-old Hartog's on-board camera shows him parking up and sprinting over to the fiery wreck, frantically tearing at the car in an effort to extricate the British driver before grabbing a fire extinguisher from out of frame, calming the flames long enough to approach the driver's side door and drag Millroy's body out of the fire and out of danger.

Track personnel then arrived with fire extinguishers of their own and started spraying down the car, well over a minute after the crash.

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Millroy: I am alive tonight because of one man

Milllroy made an emotional post on social media the evening after the crash, thanking Hartog for the 'incredible act of bravery' which may very well have saved his life.

"I am still alive tonight," he wrote, "entirely thanks to one man. Loek Hartog stopped instantly with no flag marshalls or fire crews in sight, and risked his own life to get me out of the car.

"I don’t remember anything between 30 seconds before the crash and 1 hour after it, but I will remember his incredible act of bravery for the rest of my life. One day I will tell our three kids this story and Loek will be the biggest superhero in history in their eyes too.

"I’m laying here tonight with 5 broken ribs, broken collar bone, broken hand and finger and a bruised lung, but it could have been much worse.

"Thank you Loek. I owe you my life for your selfless act today.

"Thank you to everyone for your kind messages. I will try and get back you now that I have a few days in bed. I’m counting my lucky stars tonight, that’s for sure. Fern is on the plane out here and I’m surround by my team, my Taiwanese and Chinese family Team AAI. I have a couple of operations tomorrow to put everything back where it should be, then a few weeks resting here before I can fly.

"Thank you to Ferrari Races for building a car capable of taking that impact and I’m sorry for our AAI Motorsports crew and my team mate Chen Yin Yu that you have lost your rocket ship today.

"Rebuild, recover and then back on the horse."

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Ollie Millroy (@olliemillroy)

Hartog speaks after heroic driver rescue

Hartog himself was modest in the wake of hundreds of fans calling him a hero for his actions, writing later on his own social media channels: "When I saw a car engulfed in a huge ball of fire in front of me, there wasn’t really a decision to be made. From what I could see, I naturally assumed the driver couldn’t get out on his own, so I stopped, got out and went over to the car. I never had any doubts.

“And reflecting on it afterwards, I'm mostly grateful for the people I've had around me throughout my life and career who have taught me to recognise when something is bigger than racing and to live in the present. This is what living in the present is like.

"It was terrifying, and there were moments when I didn’t know if I’d ever manage to get Ollie out. But it’s not about what I did; I’m sure many people in my position would have reacted exactly the same way.

“The most important thing is that Ollie is okay. Things could have turned out very differently today, and I’m truly grateful that they didn’t.”

Millroy team withdraws from ChinaGT championship

Millroy's FIST Team AAI are understandably furious, and have withdrawn from the championship immediately, demanding an investigation into how their driver was left stranded in a burning car for well over a minute by track safety crews.

They also condemned the series for 'not verifying' the situation, after it was claimed on the race broadcast that all drivers involved in the crash had left their cars on their own.

“It is particularly distressing that during the live broadcast, the organizers did not verify the situation on the scene, and hastily said the drivers left the cars on their own," they wrote. "The actual situation is: our driver was rescued from the burning car by Loek Hartog, regardless of his own safety.

“We pay our highest respect to Loek for his heroic act of giving himself up to save others.”

The championship has promised an investigation and review of the incident.

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Chris Deeley - Editor

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F1 Ferrari Shanghai International Circuit