Spielberg, Austria - They shook hands and walked off, the way only racing drivers can after crashing at 209km/h.
But for a few chilling moments here in the Styrian mountains, it is no exaggeration to say that Kimi Raikkonen was an inch or two away from losing his head.
The chilling scene unfolded on the first lap at the start of the top straight, with Fernando Alonso’s McLaren on the left-hand tail of Raikkonen’s Ferrari. Raikkonen suddenly lost control of his car, his hands wrestling with the steering wheel.
Alonso braked too late, his car climbing over the Ferrari, just missing the head of Raikkonen as it did so. The two cars, Alonso’s on top of the Ferrari, careered into the barriers.
The Spaniard climbed out of his cockpit and he - and fans watching on the big screens and on televisions around the world - waited anxiously for Raikkonen to move. Thankfully, he also got out of his machine, a crumpled red mess. Alonso shook his friend’s hand. Two former world champions were just glad to see that the other was all right.
ALONSO DESCRIBES SCARY MOMENT:
“It was obviously quite scary,” said Alonso. “The start was very good. Kimi had a lot of wheelspin out of turn two. I was overtaking him and he lost the car on the left.
“I was on the left. I could not see anything. I looked in the mirror and saw a car under my car. I jumped out quickly to see he was OK. I saw he was, so I was happy.”
Alonso reported no more than bruised knees. Both retired from the race, little hardship for Alonso who started last-but-one after an engine change put him a supposed 25 places down the grid - an impossibility given there are only 20 cars in total.
In reality, only team-mate Jenson Button, who also had engine changes, started behind him.
The wreckage of Alonso’s car - without wishing to trivialise the accident - was a symbol of McLaren’s woeful season so far.
Raikkonen and Alonso were called to the stewards.
THE INVESTIGATION
Their investigation confirmed that nobody had hit Raikkonen to cause him to lose control. No further action was taken against either driver.
“I don’t know exactly what happened before the crash but I had some wheelspin in an unusual place,” said Raikkonen, who only last week called for more danger in the sport.
“I was at quite a high speed and suddenly I went left. I did not see anything coming. Everything happened very quickly.
“Unfortunately at that time my race was over. It has been a poor weekend.”
The accident was a reminder of the last of the great inherent dangers of sitting in an F1 car: the vulnerability of the head. Motor racing in recent years has been stained by such incidents.
In 2009, Henry Surtees, son of 1964 world champion John Surtees, died in a Formula Two race at Brands Hatch when he was hit by a stray wheel.
Maria de Villota, being given a test by Marussia at Duxford aerodrome, hit a lorry. Her injuries from that day were blamed for her death a year later, in 2013.
And last year, Jules Bianchi was seriously injured when he hit a recovery crane in Japan, an accident which leaves him in a terrible condition in hospital to this day.
There were also those who thankfully recovered: Felipe Massa, who was hit in the head by a spring during qualifying for the 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix. He competed in yesterday’s race.
Alonso was also fortunate when Romain Grosjean’s Lotus came close to his head three years ago at Spa.
ARE CANOPIES NEEDED?
The FIA, the sport’s governing body, have looked at developing jet-fighter-style canopies. Tests at Ipswich aerodrome showed these would eliminate almost all risk.
In one experiment, they crashed a Formula One wheel weighing 20 kilos into a canopy and found it did not smash.
So, why not fit them to the cars? Tradition is one reason, and the potential difficulty of extricating drivers from cars is another.
However, Formula One cars are better protected than ever, thanks in large measure to the pioneering work of Professor Sid Watkins, the late medical delegate who tended to Ayrton Senna as he died at Imola in 1994, and the FIA’s safety division.
That was a point touched upon last night by Christian Horner, the Red Bull team principal.
“The regulations as they are protected Kimi pretty well, thanks to the side panels and so on,” he said.
“It was good to see the drivers get out unscathed.”
FIVE F1 STARS WHO DODGED DISASTER
1. RUBENS BARRICHELLO IMOLA, 1994
The Brazilian mounts a steep kerb in qualifying and his Jordan launches into the wall. He is knocked unconscious but survives. However, Ayrton Senna and Austrian Roland Ratzenberger are killed in separate incidents that weekend.
2. MARK WEBBER VALENCIA, 2010
The Australian slams into the back of Heikki Kovalainen’s Lotus, causing his Red Bull to flip 360 degrees before skidding into the tyre wall. Webber walks away unscathed.
3. TAKUMA SATO AUSTRIA, 2002
Nick Heidfeld loses control of his Sauber and smashes into the side of the Japanese driver’s Jordan-Honda. Sato is trapped in the wreckage for 10 minutes but is not harmed.
4. KIMI RAIKKONEN SILVERSTONE, 2014
Despite crashing at 241km/h and sustaining an incredible impact after losing control of his car, the Finn escapes with bruised legs.
5. GERHARD BERGER IMOLA, 1989
The Austrian’s Ferrari crashes into a wall at 290km/h and bursts into flames. It takes 16 seconds to extinguish the fire but Berger only suffers burns to his hands and broken ribs, and remarkably misses just one race.
Daily Mail