Romain Grosjean walked away unscathed from a heavy and alarming crash caused by a loose drain cover in second practice for the Malaysian Grand Prix.
Grosjean spun off the circuit at the high-speed Turn 13, bouncing across the gravel and hitting the tyre barrier. When he came to a stop his right rear tyre had been torn from the wheel rim, with subsequent replays showing it had been heavily damaged by a drain cover which had become displaced on the inside kerb.
Haas driver Grosjean was unhurt and immediately returned to the pit-lane, where he told the media he had not noticed the cover, which had been freed from its normal position by Valtteri Bottas' Mercedes and Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari moments before.
"I'm fine, that's the most important thing," he said. "I just seen the footage, apparently a drain came out.
"I didn't see anything, it was on the racing line and then suddenly I had a big impact to my rear-right."
The heavy crash prematurely ended the session as race director Charlie Whiting visited the corner to inspect the cover.
Speaking to the media after the incident, Whiting said: "A drain grate has come up. They're normally bolted and welded but that one has broken away.
"For the rest of the day we'll concentrate on that, getting those four kerbs welded back down again. They've probably been welded for a long time I expect and have got a bit fatigued. So we will re-weld those and then tonight the guys will have to check everything."
When asked what the loose cover and Grosjean's crash meant for the rest of the weekend, he downplayed fears of any schedule changes.
"Well it just means that we have to get it fixed for tomorrow, of course. We need to do the minimum we can now to get these two sessions done today and I think with the loads that are being imparted on those drains by other cars [in the support series races] are nothing like what happens with Formula One so I suspect all will be fine."