Grosjean: ‘I saw death coming, I had to get out’

ROMAIN Grosjean said he will be psychologically “marked for life” after his miraculous escape from Sunday’s horrific crash at the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Grosjean, who wants to compete in Formula One’s final race of the season in Abu Dhabi in less than two weeks, relived the trauma after emerging from the flaming wreckage of his car with relatively minor injuries.

“It is like a rebirth for me. I will be marked for life by this,” Grosjean told French news channel LCI.

The 34-year-old said that he feared for his life as he struggled to get out of his car, which burst into flames after colliding head on into safety barriers at 137mph shortly after the start of the race.

“I saw death coming, I had no option but to get out,” he said.

The Frenchman put his survival down to a “combination of circumstances which went in the right direction” after spending 28 seconds in the blaze, adding: “I’m not complaining. It wasn’t my time.”

Grosjean, who described his second degree burns to both hands as “superficial”, said he was fully conscious throughout and had been determined not to suffer more serious injuries for the sake of his children and parents.

“I saw my visor all orange, the flames around me, and the accident of Niki Lauda came to mind,” he said.

“I didn’t want to end up like that. I had to get out, for my children.

“I was more afraid for my relatives, my children in the first place, but also my father and my mother, not myself.”

Tom Weiskopf