When you say it stalled- do you mean it cut out and wouldn't start again?
If its only 2nd gear-then try going 1st, 3rd?
It reads like you are breaking an electrical feed and turning off the magic box that supplies the sparks. Now, there are a number of modules that could be affected- cam position sensor, flywheel sensor.
What year is your car?
To give you and idea of how vague your post reads- I drove my car home from a 120 mile job, parked up and went in to have my dinner, see my son off and say bye to my grandkids- so it was sitting for an hour after a 120 run home, mid summer.
Went to start it and it turned over fine, no fire.
I spent the rest of the evening until it got dark diagnosing and found the boot wiring loom had broken and turned all my sparks off. It was an easy fix to splice some fresh wires in, solder and insulate with self-amalgamating-tape. Oh, and cable-tie the loom so it didnt happen again.