The #22 United Oreca 07-Gibson shared by Owen and his full-time FIA World Endurance Championship teammates Filipe Albuquerque and Phil Hanson ended up in the gravel at the first corner after a three-way collision involving the WRT machines of Rene Rast and Ferdinand Habsburg.
Second-place starter Owen was positioned to the outside of poleman Rast, with Habsburg even further to the outside, when Rast chopped across to the left, making contact with Owen, who subsequently hit Habsburg.
The result was that Owen's car was stranded in the gravel, albeit making it back to the pits with relatively little damage once recovered, while Habsburg had to limp back with a puncture.
Rast was handed a one-minute stop-and-go penalty aboard the #31 WRT machine he shares with Sean Gelael and Robin Frijns.
"I was almost alongside Rast, I started a bit further back, but I had a decent start and I was there right next to him," recalled Owen. "I saw the blue car [Habsburg] in my mirror moving to the left, I was aware he had a run, but I was managing the gap.
"And then suddenly Rast comes and turns left aggressively, something you would never do in a straight line. I mean, that’s how you cause accidents, honestly. I couldn’t react fast enough before I hit the blue car and I was in the gravel.
"It took five, six minutes to get the car unstuck. The race isn’t done, but it was quite a setback, put it that way."
At the six-hour mark, the #22 United car was running 15th in class with Hanson at the wheel, two laps off the class lead.
"The car is fast enough, we’re doing ok laptimes," added Owen. "We’re fast enough to do something, if we get lucky we can still have a decent result."
The Realteam by WRT car shared by Habsburg, Norman Nato and Rui Andrade, ran one place ahead of the #22 car at one-quarter distance.
Habsburg recalled of the incident: “I had a bit of a slow start behind the United, and they backed off just before the [start/finish] line, which meant I could catch up again.
"I was able to pull up alongside on the left [with] the United, and my sister car, driven by Rene Rast, didn’t know that there was a car to the left of him. He turned left and crashed into the United, which I nearly got away with but the United just clipped me on the rear as the United went off.
"I got a puncture and a damaged rear end. A really, really terrible start, but we are quick, so we’ll keep trying."
