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Formula 1 driver Romain Grosjean has said he is “pretty good” after surviving a terrible accident during the Bahrain Grand Prix.
The 34-year-old Frenchman escaped with minor burns after a security barrier split his car in half and caught fire Sunday afternoon.
Speaking in a video on Instagram from his hospital bed a few hours later, he informed fans that he was improving.
“Hi everyone, I just wanted to say that I’m fine, well … something good.
“Thank you very much for the messages.”
Grosjean added that he was “not in favor of the halo a few years ago,” but added that without it he “wouldn’t be here today,” referring to the driver’s crash protection system used in open-wheel racing series.
After the accident, he managed to jump out of the burning car up to 20 seconds after impact.
His Haas car ran off the track on the first lap and broke in two before catching fire.
He came out with fire roaring behind him and his racing helmet scorched, limping toward an ambulance.
His F1 team tweeted that he “has some minor burns on his hands and ankles, but otherwise he’s fine.”
“He’s with the doctors right now,” they added.
An FIA spokesman said the impact of the Grosjean crash was measured at 53G.
Replays showed the driver jumping over barriers and backing away from the burning wreckage of his car before being assisted to a waiting ambulance.
The accident was triggered when the Grosjean swerved ahead of Daniil Kvyat and came into contact with his AlphaTauri.
Lewis Hamilton expressed his relief on Twitter as he waited for the race to restart, saying he was “very grateful that Romain is safe.”
“Wow … the risk we take is not a joke, for those of you who forget that we risk our lives for this sport and for what we love to do,” he added.
Haas team principal Guenther Steiner said: “Romain is fine, I don’t want to make a medical comment, but he had minor burns on his hands and ankles. He’s obviously shaking … I want to thank the rescue teams who are very Quick. Marshals and FIA people did a great job, it was scary. “
Karun Chandhok from Sky Sports, a former racing driver, said: “It looks like when the car went through the barriers, the back of the chassis where the engine is mounted, the engine mount broke off and ripped a bit off the chassis and so on. appears to have punctured the fuel bag. “
The accident temporarily halted the race on the first lap. It restarted about an hour later after quick work to repair the significant damage to the side barriers.
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