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David Coulthard, the former F1 racing star - and road safety campaigner - narrowly escaped a driving ban after he was allegedly caught speeding at 110mph on a French motorway, police revealed today.

Cops said the 45-year-old Scot was the lead car in this year’s Gumball Rally when he was stopped at around 5.30pm yesterday close to a tollbooth in Schwindratzheim, just north of Strasbourg in the eastern Alsace region.

A local police source said: "He was flashed at 178 kilometres an hour - 48 over the legal limit of 130."

"We had set up a number of cameras, and over three hours, 46 drivers were found speeding in exactly the same spot. Some were travelling at almost 200 kilometres an hour."

Those stopped including 15 drivers taking part in the rally, and "all were spoken to at length", said the police source.

He added: "There speeds extremely dangerous, especially for low sports cars which cannot be seen very easily by lorry drivers."

Coulthard, who drove for the McLaren-Mercedes, Red Bull and Williams F1 teams, in the 1990s and early 2000s, reportedly paid an on-the-spot fine equivalent to just over £105.

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(Image: EPA)

If he had been clocked at just one mph more, he would have lost his licence immediately, said the police source.

The ‘Gumball 3000’ is an annual 3000 mile drive which takes on public roads across Europe.This year, the week long rally is from Dublin to Bucharest.

It was started in 1999, and often involves celebrities, but it has frequently been criticised for its disregard for road safety.

Two pensioners died in Macedonia in 2007 after being hit by a Gumball rally Porsche, while numerous drivers have been stopped for speeding.

Coulthard, who was runner-up in the 2001 F1 World Drivers' Championship, now lives in the Mediterranean principality of Monaco with his partner, Karen Minier, A Belgian TV journalist.

He frequently heads up road safety campaigns in his native Scotland.

Coulthard also works as a broadcaster himself, commentating on F1 for Channel 4, as well as running a production company.

In December 2007, British F1 champion Lewis Hamilton has had his driving licence suspended for a month after being caught speeding on a French motorway.

He was at the wheel of a Mercedes CLK when he was clocked at 196 km/h (121mph) near the northern town of Laon.

And in May 2000, Jenson Button, another F1 star, was fined 500 pounds for speeding in his BMW at 144mph, close to the southern town of Montpellier.