Kvyat was “angry” then relieved after collision which triggered Grosjean crash

2020 Bahrain Grand Prix

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Daniil Kvyat said he was initially annoyed about his first-lap contact with Romain Grosjean, until he realised the seriousness of the crash it has caused.

The pair made contact at the exit of turn three at the start of the race. The collision sent Grosjean straight into a barrier. His car broke in two and caught fire, but Grosjean was able to free himself and run to safety.

The race was immediately red-flagged. As Kvyat drove out of turn eight he was able to see the smoke from the scene of Grosjean’s crash and asked his team: “Is he OK? What’s going on there?” He was told: “I will let you know, I don’t know at the moment.”

“It was a scary moment,” said Kvyat after the race. “I saw him, at first I was very angry that he came across like this, I thought, what is he doing? But then my mind changed immediately when I saw in the mirrors the fire.

“I was just hoping he was OK. I immediately didn’t like what I saw in my mirrors. I’m glad he’s OK, honestly. It really this just reminds you what we do is dangerous.”

Kvyat’s team mate Gasly said the experience was “horrible”, and was astonished at the scale of the impact Grosjean suffered.

“Initially I didn’t know what happened and when I saw the images I was shocked because from my generation I have never seen things like this,” he said. “In the past I think it was more common, but it was really scary.

“Then when I saw Romain got out of the car already, I was happy to to see him jumping out. It’s just scary, I had no idea a Formula 1 car could break that way and especially go through the barrier.

“So the Halo proved to be really working in that particular occasion. I sent him a text during the red flag just wishing him for a good recovery.”

Grosjean has been taken to hospital with a suspected rib fracture and minor burns to his hands.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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5 comments on “Kvyat was “angry” then relieved after collision which triggered Grosjean crash”

  1. I immediately didn’t like what I saw in my mirrors.

    as someone pointed out in racefans live, if you look at the footage from Kvyat’s onboard, you can clearly see him do a double-take on his right mirror. even for me, watching the broadcast, it took like 10 seconds to realize i was watching a live race and not some dumb action flick.

    this was immensely scary and hopefully measures are put in place so it never happens again.

  2. It’s interesting he says he was angry. It makes sense. That was really a bad move from Grosjean. If it had been the other way around, and Kvyat had crashed, I think there would be some serious anger.

    As it was obvious what happened and who was at fault, “no investigation require”

  3. Grosjean should get a penalty for his poor driving.

    1. You voted Grosjean as Flop Of The Year in 2012 and 2018? And also, what about his humble off-track personality?

  4. The designer out the Alpha Tauri’s front suspension should get a gold star. It survived this impact on the right and Lance Stroll’s roll over on the left.

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