Romain Grosjean suffers a terrible fire after the Bahrain GP start; videos | Formula 1

Grosjean was in the burning cockpit for 29 seconds, but, without having passed out on impact, he managed to get out of what was left of his car and ran to jump over the railing while his Haas was still on fire. In the confusion, the pilot ran without one of his shoes.

The Frenchman suffered minor burns to his hands and there is a suspicion of rib fractures. Conscious, the Haas pilot was taken to the medical center at Sakhir racecourse and then transported by helicopter to Bahrain Central Hospital, which is ten minutes from the circuit.

The race was interrupted with the red flag because the railing was badly damaged. Those responsible for the infrastructure of the race track immediately began work on rebuilding the barrier. There is no forecast for the restart of the race.

In the accident at the exit of Turn 3, Grosjean tried to avoid other slower cars in front of him and swerved to the right, where Kvyat was. The tip of the Russian car touched the Frenchman’s right rear Haas tire, which headed for the railing.

The car was split in half, with the entire rear end on one side and the cabin part, catching fire with Grosjean inside, on the other. Two track inspectors with fire extinguishers approached the burning car and put out the fire, while the pilot jumped over the railing to escape.

The medical car rushed to the scene of the accident and Grosjean was helped up. Conscious, the pilot sat in the back seat of the medical car, where he waited for a stretcher to arrive, before being transferred to the circuit medical center.

– Romain is fine, I don’t want to make medical comments, but he had minor burns on his hands and ankles. Obviously he’s shocked … I want to thank the rescuers who are so fast. The commissioners and staff of the FIA ​​(International Automobile Federation) did a great job, it was scary, said GUnther Steiner, director of Haas.