Max Chilton says he was “inches’ away from a serious injury or even possibly death at the British Grand Prix when a loose tyre from Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari flew past him.
The grainy photo, taken from a fan video of the opening lap crash, shows a tyre carcass narrowly avoiding Chilton’s helmet as he raced down the Wellington Straight.
“I was saved by a matter of inches. I’m lucky to be here, to be honest, it was quite frightening,” said the Marussia driver.
Explaining what happened, he revealed that the tyre struck the nose and left-hand brake duct of his Marussia, which caused it to bounce away from his head.
“It all started with Raikkonen’s incident. He kind of rejoined, had a moment, like a tank-slapper, it looked like he’d regained control and then it shot off again.
“It was unfortunate the Armco [barrier] is at 45-degrees so it was like an explosion and everything shot across to the left-hand side of the track and I saw this alloy fly across and I ducked and luckily it hit the front nose and went to the left and broke my front wheel duct.”
