‘I saw death’

Grosjean leaves hospital after escaping fiery F1 crash

his F1 career and the subsequent fire from which he managed to flee with minor injuries.

“I undid my seat belt right away and I tried to get out of the car, but I realised my helmet was hitting something,” Grosjean said, his voice trembling.

“I sat back down, told myself that I was stuck and that I’ll wait.

“But on my left, it was all orange and

I realised that it was burning. I told myself: ‘No time to wait, I’m going to try to get out on the right’, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t get out on the left either.

“I thought: ‘It can’t end like this, not now’. I tried to get out again, but I couldn’t, so I sat down and I saw death, not close up, but from too close...it’s a feeling that I wish on no-one.”

CHANGED my LIVE FOREVER

Grosjean said it was by thinking of his three children while flames enveloped his vehicle that he found a way to extract himself.

“That’s where I found the resources to pull out my blocked foot, to turn my head...to put my hands up to hoist myself out knowing that they were going to burn, but that was okay,” he said.

After being taken to a medical centre he began to shake with shock and pain, but he was able to “see familiar faces” and talk with his wife, French TV presenter Marion Jolles Grosjean.

Grosjean said he is speaking to his regular sports psychologist to help with any mental problems that could arise from such a close brush with death.

“For now, I’m not having nightmares, bad thoughts, flashbacks or moments of fear, but that doesn’t mean they’re not going to come and that’s why we’re going to keep discussing it,” he said.

Brazilian driver Pietro Fittipaldi — grandson of two-time world champion Emerson Fittipaldi — will make his F1 debut in place of Grosjean in this weekend’s Sakhir Grand Prix, also in Bahrain.

jerseys and knelt before the start of each Test, as a show of support for the movement.

Holder, who recently expressed concern that the conversation over racism in cricket was beginning to wane, pointed to the England tour as a watershed moment and said Cricket West Indies would continue to play its part in the global movement.

“What I would say is that a lot more people are aware of some of the issues other races have faced. I think that’s a start and a step in the right direction, and I think more that needs to continue to build,” stressed Holder, the top-ranked all-rounder in Tests.

“The more we become aware of what is in front of us as people, we would understand what certain people go through. And that’s just the main aim of the game in terms of Cricket West Indies’ perspective, just to continue to raise that awareness for other people to understand what certain people are going through.”

He continued: “Interestingly enough when we were in England and we sat down as a team and discussed it as a team, and some of the guys shared their personal experiences and it was touching.

“It was touching to hear some of them openly share, and one of the things that I have found is that certain people are so battered and bruised by it, they are scared to share.

“If we throw a little more awareness behind it and support, then people would be open to sharing a little bit more.”