Zhou Guanyu said the halo safety device “saved me today” after he escaped uninjured from the horror multi-car smash at the start of Sunday’s British Grand Prix.

Zhou’s Alfa Romeo was catapulted upside down, the Chinese rookie’s head saved by his car’s roll hoop-halo as it skidded off across a gravel trap and over tyre barriers into the catch fencing, where it bounced back to finish semi-upright in a stationary position.

Marshalls rushed to Zhou trapped in his stricken car.

Detailed replays of the accident were not available immediately until Zhou had been rescued from his car.

The field filed back to the pits after the collision as a specialist extraction crew attended Zhou, who remained in his car, until he was lifted clear.

George Russell’s Mercedes, Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, Yuki Tsunoda (Alpha Tauri) and the Williams of Alex Albon were also involved in the pile-up that triggered a one hour red flag delay.

Read more here

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.