Grosjean escapes F1 fireball at Bahrain GP after huge crash
It was like a scene from an action movie, except totally unscripted and genuinely life-threatening, involving a stunning escape that Harry Houdini would have struggled to match.
Formula One driver Romain Grosjean was trapped in a burning car after it sliced in half and exploded into a fireball, following a crash on the first lap of the Bahrain Grand Prix on Sunday.
As flames tore into the desert night sky, Grosjean was inside a raging furnace for about 10-15 seconds.
Somehow, the quick-thinking Frenchman did not give in to panic.
Somehow, he was lucid enough to find a way out.
Jumping through the flames like an action hero, he then grabbed the molten-hot metal barrier in front of him and hurdled over it onto the track.
Safe though visibly shaken, he was well enough to walk to the ambulance with the help of two medics.
The relief, for his distraught teammate Kevin Magnussen and others watching from the paddock, was immense. Drivers and other team members spontaneously applauded.
The 34-year-old Grosjean clambered out of the burning wreckage with his race helmet and fireproof race tunic singed as track marshalls sprayed him with a fire extinguisher.
As Grosjean was taken by helicopter to a military hospital, where he was being kept overnight, drivers reacted to the jarring scene.
"The car, the cockpit. I don't know what Gs he pulled but I'm just so grateful the halo worked," said F1 champion Lewis Hamilton, who won the restarted race. "It shows what an amazing job Formula One has done, the FIA has done, for him to be able to walk away from something like that."
Countryman Pierre Gasly, who drives for AlphaTauri, was left in shock.
"It was horrible, really scary. I had no idea a Formula One car could break that way," Gasly said. "I have texted him to wish him a good recovery. I think he is fine but a really scary thing."
Hospital X-rays showed Grosjean did not even break a bone, despite an estimated impact speed of 200 kph (125 mph).
But had he not managed to wriggle free, pulling him out of the cockpit would have been extremely difficult.
"I've never seen that much fire in 12 years. It took a little while to process what was going on but then Romain started to get out of the car himself, which was amazing," said Alan van der Merwe, the driver of the F1 medical car. "Everything worked hand in hand today: the halo, the barriers, the seat belt. Without one of the things it could've been a different outcome."
The halo is a safety device that forms a protective ring around the drivers' head. It was introduced following the death of French driver Jules Bianchi after he sustained massive head trauma on a rain-soaked track at the Japan GP six years ago and went headfirst into a trackside crane. Two years ago Charles Leclerc — Bianchi's close friend — was likely saved serious injury or death by the halo when another car landed on top of his at the Belgian GP.