LEWIS Hamilton admitted to being "terrified" for Heikki Kovalainen after catching a glimpse of his McLaren team-mate's 150mph smash.
Kovalainen hurtled off the track during the Spanish Grand Prix and ploughed nose first into a tyre barrier with such force that half his car was buried.
Marshals and the medical car raced to his aid, and when he was eventually retrieved, there was
little remaining of the front of the McLaren following what team boss Ron Dennis described as a wheel-rim failure that led to a left-front tyre puncture.
Kovalainen, who was knocked unconscious on impact, was taken away on a stretcher to the Circuit de Catalunya's medical centre prior to being airlifted to a nearby hospital.
The 26-year-old at least gave a thumbs-up sign to indicate he was okay as television cameras focused on him as he lay on the stretcher. Remarkably, following a series of scans, it emerged Kovalainen had suffered nothing more than mild concussion, and there is a strong chance he will race in the Turkish Grand Prix in two weeks' time.
Team-mate Hamilton said: "As I passed I just saw a car in the wall and it was red. I didn't know if it was Heikki or one of the Ferraris, but then the team told me it was Heikki, although at that moment they did not know how bad he was. They later came on the radio and said he was okay, just slightly concussed.
"I was terrified for whoever it was because I saw the impact was quite heavy. It obviously wasn't a great day for Heikki, but I'm glad he is okay and I'm sure he'll be back."
Hamilton went on to take third behind a second successive Ferrari one-two, this time spearheaded by world champion Kimi Raikkonen, with Felipe Massa in close attendance.
Dennis was appreciably relieved his driver had escaped unharmed. "His scans are completely clear, with no physical damage at all, no trauma or damage to his brain," confirmed the McLaren manager.
"He is a little concussed, but we're quite optimistic for the next race, subject to the results of an FIA medical examination."
Explaining the accident, Dennis added: "As far as we can tell the wheel-rim failed, which is a very unusual occurrence. It only had 14km on it, so it was a brand new wheel effectively.
"The tyre deflation could have been due to a piece of the rim flying off or a clipping from some of the carbon fibre. That's as accurate as we can be at this stage."
Raikkonen's 17th victory of his career was the eighth successive occasion a driver had won from pole at Barcelona, allowing him to open up nine-point gap over Hamilton.
Behind the leading trio, Robert Kubica finished fourth in his BMW Sauber, followed by Red Bull Racing's Mark Webber.
Jenson Button picked up Honda's first points of the season with sixth, while Kazuki Nakajima was seventh for Williams and Jarno Trulli eighth in his Toyota. In the constructors' championship, Ferrari now have a 12-point cushion to BMW Sauber, with McLaren a point further back.
Meanwhile, David Coulthard's season of woe continued when the veteran was fined 4,000 euros after he missed the drivers' parade prior to the race as a result of being delayed elsewhere.
Coulthard's day didn't get any better as, starting a lowly 17th, he was hit with an early bump from Force India's Adrian Sutil. But then the 37-year-old, aided by a number of retirements, was closing in on a potential points finish when he was shunted again, this time by Toyota's Timo Glock, causing a puncture that ultimately resulted in a 12th place finish.
The full article contains 627 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
