The Formula 1 doctor first on the scene of Romain Grosjean's dramatic crash at the Bahrain Grand Prix says he feared the worst.
Dr Ian Roberts says the Haas driver is recovering well from his minor injuries and burns and could be released as early as tomorrow from hospital.
It's understood the Frenchman has burns to his hands but otherwise is OK, with no broken bones in his body.
"He is in excellent spirits. All his dressings are still in his hand. So, looks like he's got a very, very strange set of gloves," Roberts said.
"The medical staff at the hospital are extremely happy with him. He is progressing very, very well and they're very happy with the way that at this early stage his hands are responding to their treatments."
Roberts has opened up on yesterday's horrifying incident, calling the crash something out of "Hollywood".
"We came 'round into turn three to be met by this fireball and which we both described as more like a Hollywood type of setup."
"In fact, I could see Romain in his car attempting to get out. The fire was well going and I could see him behind essentially a sheet of flame, almost furnace like, and then it was straight out of the car and in to do our best.
"The fire was pretty intense. Yeah, it was stinging my face. I couldn't feel anything anywhere else, but it was stinging my face and knowing what Romain was climbing out of, the guy did a fantastic job of extricating himself.
"I pulled him across over to our car but he couldn't actually see anything. The tear offs melted and his visor appeared to be pretty opaque. I couldn't actually see him. He was pretty unsteady, so we got him to sit down before he fell down — making a very quick assessment at that time, and to get his helmet off because we really want to see whether there are any injuries to his airway and face. And he was very much with it," said Roberts of his initial assessment of Grosjean.
Despite his heroic actions, Roberts claims he's anything but.
The Formula 1 doctor says he shouldn't be thought of a hero and was just doing his job.
"No, I'm no hero. Lots of people do seriously and proper heroic things. I did what was necessary, so no, I don't consider myself a hero. But I'm very pleased for people's kind words. It's nice, it's nice."
Instead, he believes the real hero was the halo head protection on the F1 vehicles.
The safety feature has been universally credited as saving Grosjean's life, even by the driver himself who was against the head protection's inclusion back in 2018.
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