Fernando Alonso says there can be no blame attached to Esteban Gutierrez for the accident he thinks he was "lucky" to walk away from at the Australian Grand Prix.
Alonso was sent into a frightening barrel roll when he drove into the back of Haas driver Gutierrez on the approach to Turn 3 on lap 18. Alonso's McLaren flew with terrifying speed across the gravel trap, eventually coming to test against a tyre wall.
The Spaniard walked away unscathed and he thinks that is proof of how safe modern F1 cars are.
Asked to describe the crash after returning to the media interview pen, Alonso said: "I am happy to be here! It was a scary crash, I took the slipstream of Gutierrez and you only see a rear wing and I may have missed the braking point and he braked where he didn't expect me to move. A combination of things, normal when you are racing. We must not forget that at 300kph anything can happen ... I'm lucky to be here and thanks to the FIA for the safety of these cars because they are quite robust."
Alonso was out of the car almost immediately and he says he did not want to worry his mother, who was watching the race.
"Everything happened slower than the outside. It doesn't stop, it keeps going. The last point the car stopped and I thought I had to get out quickly because my mother is watching at home.
"I saw from the outside. From the inside it was not the same because you don't know exactly where you are because you just see the sky and the ground and then the sky... when I stopped I saw a little space so I got out quickly to make sure they won't worry about me. I didn't know where I was because I travelled [a long way], it was quite scary."
The McLaren driver appeared to misjudge the braking zone of Gutierrez, who was on 17-lap old tyres compared to Alonso's fresh rubber and would therefore have had less grip.
Asked if Gutierrez lifted off the throttle too early, Alonso said: "I don't think so. If he did it is because he is braking for his own racing line and I should anticipate that too. You focus on the slipstream and you only see a rear wing and I probably was late. Now there is no point to say more than that, we are both OK."