Young Australian racing driver Daniel Ricciardo has escaped unhurt from a huge crash overnight at the start of a race in the World Series by Renault at Britain's Silverstone circuit.

Coming from the second row of the grid, 21-year-old Ricciardo, of Perth, was making a dash for the lead towards the first corner when Englishman Jon Lancaster swerved left into him, flicking Ricciardo's car into a barrel-roll.

The packed grandstand cheered as Ricciardo, second in the series and the reserve driver for the Red Bull Formula team for which Mark Webber leads the world championship, climbed unhurt from the cockpit.

"That's one of the shortest races in my career," Ricciardo said.

"When I was waiting on the grid (in third place) I could see Lancaster ahead of me (in pole position) was pointing across, so I knew that he was going to go defensive immediately.

"That sets alarm bells ringing.

"Sure enough, he dived off to the right at the start (towards Argentinian Esteban Guerrieri, who second on the grid) and at first I had a clear path.

"But then suddenly he was heading for me and just speared into me and sent the car airborne.

"There's not a lot you can really do in those circumstances.

"It's really bad luck, but I've already put it behind me to focus on winning the second race of the weekend (Sunday night, Australian time)."

Ricciardo's Tech 1 crew is working feverishly to repair his car for tonight's race.

Guerrieri crossed the finish line first last night for his fifth victory of the season - two more than Ricciardo and series leader, Russian Mikhail Aleshin - but the Argentinian was disqualified for an illegal piece of tape on his car.

"All because of one f...... piece of tape. Can you believe it?" Guerrieri said.

"After I had a crash someone put a small strip of tape over a join between the nosebox and the bodywork covering the suspension.

"There should have been pins, but because of the accident it was broken.

"We can't even make an appeal as it is a technical infringement."

Guerrieri's exclusion handed victory to Ricciardo's new French teammate Jean-Eric Vergne at only his third start in the series.

Aleshin moved another four points ahead of Ricciardo, 115 to 101, by finishing seventh.

In another drama at Silverstone, Italian Formula Three champion Daniel Zampieri was denied a start in the race after a garage altercation with Czech team boss Igor Salaquarda.

Zampieri had claimed Salaquarda's son Filip had blocked him during qualifying.