Underneath the floodlights, the Bahrain Grand Prix had gotten off to a horrifying start this afternoon after Haas driver Romain Grosjean saw his car engulfed in flames following a crash during one of the very first corners.A condensed field struggled for track room around the areas of turn two and three within the track, with Racing Point’s Lance Stroll being the first to run wide towards the right.But slightly further back, towards the rear of the field, an extraordinary and terrifying incident was about to occur.Occupying the central right area of the straight, Daniil Kvyat was caught by surprise.The Haas of Romain Grosjean swiped into the left-hand-side of the Russian’s car, before the Frenchman headed uncontrollably off the track and through a barrier, causing his car to burst into a barrage of flames.Unbelievable and truly, truly horrifying.Thankfully, Grosjean was able to escape the blaze by hurdling the barrier and being attended to by the medical car staff, who were straight on the scene with fire extinguishers to try and decrease any further damage.You can see the driver being hauled from the flames in the clips below.

Remarkably, Grosjean was sitting in the flames for 32 seconds, but he somehow escaped with just a few burns on his hands and ankles, as well as a potential broken rib.

Unsurprisingly, the Grand Prix was then delayed whilst officials worked on the barrier that Grosjean smashed into.

Due to the collision, the barricade was completely ruined, which meant serious work had to be done to ensure the track was safe.

As for Grosjean, he owes his life to the Halo, which was only introduced to Formula 1 a few years ago.

It's not an exaggeration to say that if that crash was to happen even as little as five years ago, the end result would have been very different.

Thankfully for Grosjean and everyone involved in F1, safety has improved massively in recent years and he's been able to walk away from the incident.