Zhou Guanyu says he had concern over potential fire in his Silverstone accident and initially did not realise where his Alfa Romeo had landed.
Zhou was involved in a frightening accident at the start of Sunday’s British Grand Prix after he was involved in contact with George Russell.
Zhou’s car flipped, dragged along the tarmac, before striking and vaulting the tyre barriers, before coming to a rest in the area behind the barriers.
Speaking in-depth about the accident for the first time on Thursday, Zhou said: “For me when the flip happened the first thing I tried to do was release my hands off the steering wheel because you never know, you can break your hands very easily with a crash like that.
“While I was rolling on the ground I knew I would be facing a massive impact coming up because the car wasn’t stopping, so I tried to lock myself in a position that was the safest possible, just waiting for the last impact.
“I was just holding the hands backwards and keeping a reasonable tension so you don’t get flung around when you have that last impact. That was the case, so basically I was just waiting for the last hit.
“Once I was stopped I didn’t know where I was because I was upside down and the next thing I felt was some leaking.
“I was not sure if it was from my body or from the car, so I just tried to switch the engine off because the engine was still on at that point. I knew if a fire started it would be difficult to get out, so I switched my engine off and then everything was fine.”
Zhou explained that he “didn’t realise” where his car stopped “until I saw the picture.
“I managed to get myself sort of out and the medical team put me in the medical car, so I only realised afterwards.
“I didn’t know what happened, who hit me because I was going straight next to the white line before Turn 1 and suddenly there was a massive shunt.”
