Watch the 8 most surprising crashes in F1 history

#2 Michael Schumacher and Christijan Albers, China 2005

Once again, an embarrassing accident occurred in the warm-up lap prior to the main Grand Prix event. This time, however, the scene for the crash was the Shanghai International Circuit in China.

Albers was driving for Minardi and was in his rookie season in F1. Schumacher, of course, was with Ferrari and had already won all his seven world championships. Both had started a practice lap to get a feel for track temperatures and getting the pressure on their tyres just right for the race.

Schumacher had traffic ahead of him as he started and so, as soon as he reached an empty section of the track, started weaving to get his tyres and brakes warmed up and all ready to go. What he failed to see was Albers approaching him from behind in the Minardi.

Albers failed to slow down in time and collided with the Ferrari of Schumacher, damaging its rear tyre and blackening the chassis. It forced Schumacher to limp back to the pits in the faint hopes that it would be repaired. Albers had no such problems but went to his garage nonetheless.

As it turned out, both drivers had to race in their spare cars, and had to start the race from the pitlane. It capped off a miserable season for Schumacher as he finished third in the championship as his new rival, Alonso took his first world championship with Raikkonen finishing second.

Video: Schumacher and Albers crash China 2005