F1: Grosjean "closed eyes" in huge crash

Romain Grosjean says he closed his eyes during his huge crash in the Russian Grand Prix, and he paid tribute to safety advances in Formula 1 afterward.

The Lotus driver retired from the race in spectacular fashion when he lost control through the fast Turn 3, with his car ploughing into the outside safety barrier.

"When I saw it coming I knew it was going to be a good hit," said Grosjean. "I released the steering wheel, made my muscles strong, closed my eyes and waited for it to be over.

"You know that those two, three or four tenths before hitting the wall are going to feel like 10 seconds and it's going to hurt.

"I was glad when I opened my eyes that I was fine. I won't be able to run a marathon tomorrow but I'm good."

Grosjean said he was grateful for all of the safety devices that played their part in protecting him.

"I'm very thankful the helmet, HANS device, Tecpro barriers, crash structure of the car are so good," he said. "I'm very happy the technology in Formula 1 is so good that after I have a big shock like that I can come here and talk about it.

"Tomorrow morning is going to be a little bit sore, but I can be happy with the safety in Formula 1. Thank God we've made so much progress with technology."

Grosjean said Lotus is yet to determine the cause of the accident.

"We lost the rear in a very high-speed corner," he said. "We need to see if it was my fault or if something didn't work as expected.

"We're going to investigate it, because it was a bit strange. It was an easy corner all weekend and suddenly it became a tricky one."

Originally on Autosport.com