Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Grosjean: Death was here for me
ROMAIN Grosjean said he made peace with himself and was prepared to die as he battled to escape the Formula One fireball which stunned the world.
Grosjean, 34, was back in the Sakhir paddock yesterday, just five days after his terrifying crash at last weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix.
The French driver suffered only minor burns to his hands and was released from the Bahrain Defence Force Hospital on Wednesday. His car penetrated a steel barrier at 137mph, split in two, and burst into flames during the most dramatic accident of recent F1 memory.
Recalling the terrifying 28 seconds he fought for his life, Grosjean, with both hands still in bandages, said: “When the car came to a stop, I opened my eyes and I undid my seatbelt straight away.
“It felt like something was touching my head, so I sat back down in the car and my first thought was to wait.
“I wasn’t even stressed, but then obviously I was not aware at the time there was a fire. I looked right, I looked left and I saw fire. I thought, I don’t really have the time to wait here.
“I tried to go up a bit more on the right, and it didn’t work. I try on the left and it doesn’t work. I sat back down and thought about Niki Lauda’s accident [at the Nurburgring in 1976] and that it couldn’t end like this.
“But I tried again and I was still stuck. Then there is the less pleasant moment where my body starts to relax. I am in peace with myself and I am going to die.
“I thought which part is going to burn first? Is it the foot? Is it the hands? Is it going to be painful? It was a very, very strange feeling. Sometimes we are close to death, we are a bit scared. This time, death was here for me.”
LIVERPOOL manager Jurgen Klopp has warned England boss Gareth Southgate he will have a problem for Euro 2020 as he will “get what he is given” by Premier League clubs if the current three-substitute rule persists.
Klopp has been the most vocal proponent of a return to having the option to make five changes during a match, in line with what happened after lockdown ended last season.
However, despite him and a number of other managers supporting the move there was no vote on it at this week’s Premier League meeting.
“I’m not surprised. I told you that in the managers’ meeting (in November) if we would have voted that day, which we were not allowed to, it would have been through 100% with 15 or 16 votes,” he said.
“That it didn’t happen since then is a sign some shareholders and CEOs and sporting directors see differently from their managers.
“That is not a good sign, really, to be honest. These people now really ignore player welfare.
“Now pretty much all teams have to