In Pictures: Bahrain 2020
"The halo saved my life" - Romain Grosjean
The most important news to emerge from the 16th Bahrain Grand Prix at the Sakhir circuit was that Romain Grosjean escaped with only minor injuries from a terrible accident in which his Haas went through a barrier and caught fire. The halo, the car’s survival cell, the speedy reaction from the marshals and the immediate intervention of the Medical Car crew all played their part as did the driver’s ability to emerge from the car unaided. The incident confirmed yet again the very high safety levels of current Formula 1 cars, which is mainly down to the efforts of the FIA.
After the accident, the Grand Prix became a rather long procession with not much action on track. At the end it was Lewis Hamilton winning his 95th F1 race, his fourth in Bahrain and eleventh of the 2020 season.
““Today is a reminder for all of us that this is a dangerous sport. It was shocking to see Romain’s accident and I’m just so grateful that the Halo did its job and credit to the FIA medical team who were straight on the scene. For Romain to be able to walk away from an accident like that just shows what an incredible job F1 and the FIA have done in their quest for safety. Physically it was such a demanding race. Max pushed me all the way and he had a lot of speed today. I was struggling a little bit with the car sliding around, but I just had enough to be able to respond to Max’s quick laps when it mattered. I was a little cautious how it would play out at the end of the race once Max pitted, but I’m so thankful to my team because they made the right calls all day on the strategy. What a privilege it is to be able to get another result like this.” ”
““It was of course a big shock to see the flames at the start of the race and you know it is bad when there is fire like that. We were all relieved that Romain was able to get out of the car himself and that any injuries were treatable and I hope he recovers quickly. It’s not nice to see those things happen but fortunately the safety is incredible with the suits and the halo really saved his life today by pushing the guard rail up over his head. In the race I tried everything I could to stay with Lewis and there wasn’t much left to give but unfortunately we were just a bit too slow. I think we could maybe have put Mercedes under a bit more pressure but overall I think second is where we belong today with the pace of the car. A double podium is a great result for the Team and well done to Alex as I am pleased for him. The car seems to be working well here so we’ll see how next weekend goes on the different layout but hopefully we can find a bit more pace and get everything that’s possible.””
““Of course there’s a bit of luck involved today and Sergio drove a good race but we were there to capitalize on anything happening ahead and that’s exactly what we did so I’m really happy. The Team told me Sergio might have an engine issue and my first thought was if he’s dropping oil, I don’t want to be the first car behind him so I stayed off-line just in case and fortunately everything worked out. Considering the car damage we had on Friday, the guys did an amazing job to get everything ready for Saturday and it’s nice to repay them in this way. It’s been a good weekend for me pace wise and I’m happy with how it turned out. I feel like the last few races have been getting better and results just haven’t shown that but we’ve taken another step forward this weekend and I’m pleased. Next week we’re racing on a different layout but it’s a pretty similar circuit so hopefully we can expect more of the same. Like everyone in the paddock I was also very relieved to see Romain walk away from the car after the accident, it was shocking to watch back and the safety team did an amazing job today.””
JOMA