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The Bahrain Grand Prix has been red-flagged on its opening lap after a huge fiery accident involving Romain Grosjean.
Grosjean, who got out of the car soon after the incident, was conscious and alert in the aftermath as he communicated to doctors in the medical car, before exiting it and limping over to the track ambulance.
His team has confirmed that he has been taken to a local hospital with a suspected rib fracture.
Grosjean’s Haas had speared to the inside of the circuit on the way out of the opening complex in a multi-car incident in which he made contact with Daniil Kvyat’s AlphaTauri.
The Haas speared into an armco barrier virtually head on and was split in half, with its front section puncturing the barrier while the engine section sheared off and immediately exploded in flame.
Grosjean managed to extricate himself from the car and climbed out of the fire and over the barriers, helped by medical officer Ian Roberts.
Haas initially reported Grosjean sustained some “minor burns” but was otherwise unharmed – but the team later communicated that he would head to the hospital with suspected broken ribs.
LIGHTS OUT!!!
⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️
⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️And almost immediately there's a 🚩Red Flag 🚩 as there's an incident at the back of the field at Turn 3 #BahrainGP 🇧🇭 #F1 pic.twitter.com/J2ERQZzFwk
— Formula 1 (@F1) November 29, 2020
The field has returned to the pitlane to await news on the restart.
Lewis Hamilton had held the lead from pole, while Valtteri Bottas got away slowly and fell to sixth.
The race will restart at 6.35pm local time, an hour and 25 minutes after the original start time.
I'm so grateful Romain is safe. Wow… the risk we take is no joke, for those of you out there that forget that we put our life on the line for this sport and for what we love to do. Thankful to the FIA for the massive strides we've taken for Romain to walk away from that safely https://t.co/dG8AXmsbKN
— Lewis Hamilton (@LewisHamilton) November 29, 2020
“The marshals and the FIA people, they did a great job you know, it was scary. It is scary,” Haas team boss Guenther Steiner told Sky shortly after the crash.
“When you see what is going on out there, if you see the barrier where they have torn down, it’s unbelievable.
“I think we were lucky, I prefer that luck than any racing luck.
“It looked like he was just moving across and went over the front wheel [of Kvyat] and just went full speed into the barrier. That what it looks to me. I just have seen the footage you guys have seen, I’ve not seen any more, so that’s what it looks like.
“As long as he is good, that’s the most important thing.”
