Fernando Alonso felt lucky to escape serious injury after a crash which very nearly flipped his car at the United States Grand Prix.
The Spaniard collided with Lance Stroll midway through the race in Austin, which sent him onto his rear wheels at high speed. Fortunately he was able to avoid flipping or hitting a barrier, and was even able to continue racing while the Aston Martin driver was forced to retire.
The two drivers will be driving for the same team next year when Alonso makes his move from Alpine, adding to the drama of the crash. The 41-year-old was able to recover and still finish seventh in a remarkable race, but afterwards he just seemed grateful to have escaped unscathed.
"I'm happy to be here talking with you because I could surely be in the medical centre. So I'm happy for that," he told DAZN Espana, as translated by Sports Illustrated. "We were lucky with the first safety car... And then, on the restart, I tried to take Stroll's slipstream.
"I moved to the side to leave the slipstream, and he also moved. It was a bit of bad luck that we didn't understand each other. When I was in the air, I was a bit scared because it was very dangerous. When I landed on the asphalt, I thought it was race over. That's what I thought when I entered the pits.
"In the end, to finish seventh is incredible. The last laps, I was pushing like it was qualifying. It was my best race of the season, but the fear is still in my stomach. After the crash, I couldn't stop thinking about it for the rest of the race. I just wanted to finish the race."
Replays showed Stroll turning his steering wheel to the left as Alonso attempted to overtake, which led to their wheels colliding and sending the Alpine up into the air. Despite that, Stroll insisted he had left the Spaniard "plenty of room" – though he did acknowledge that he "definitely moved late".
"There was a big difference in speed," he said. "I was judging more or less, kind of picking where he was behind me. But it's not like I hit him on the side of his car. The impact is still his front wing to the rear of my car. I gave him plenty of room on the left of the track, so it's not like I squeezed him or anything like that against a wall.
"He could have moved earlier and went more to the left. He didn't have to get so close to me either. So, there's a lot of different ways you could look at the incident. It was a shame. It was close wheel to wheel racing and unfortunately just made contact."
Both drivers were called to their stewards to explain themselves, with Stroll handed a three-place grid penalty at the Mexican Grand Prix next weekend for causing the crash. Regardless, the Canadian does not believe the incident will affect their future partnership, adding: "I don't look at it that way. We're racing drivers. It can happen in a race."
