One Year On: Romain Grosjean Recalls his Miraculous Escape on Bahrain GP Crash's First Anniversary

Former Formula 1 driver Romain Grosjean on Monday marked the first anniversary of his miraculous escape during the fiery Bahrain crash, which ended his F1 career and almost took his life. Celebrating the tragic day as his second birthday, the Swiss-Frenchman even jokingly referred to himself as a “phoenix" on Instagram. “29 Nov 15:10 happy birthday #ThePhoenix," Grosjean wrote on the photo and video sharing application along with a picture of himself eating a pie.

A post shared by Romain Grosjean (@grosjeanromain)

Moments after the Bahrain race started last year, Grosjean lost control of his Haas as it gotoff the track and was hit by a barrier. Within seconds, Grosjean’s car was engulfed in a fireball, his automobile even split in half, such was the force of the accident. The driver was also stuck in the wreckage for 27 seconds before he somehow managed to make it out.

Here is the video of the devastating accident:

Speaking about the catastrophic incident, Grosjean said that he felt it was game over for him. Grosjean’s remark came on Nico Rosberg’s most recent podcast, where the two discussed the driver’s F1 career and his exit from sports.

“At one point, I thought, you know, that was it. Game over. That’s why I say, to me, I don’t know, I was five or ten seconds from being dead," Grosjean said on the highly acclaimed F1 podcast.

Grosjean, however, did not give up and kept fighting to get out of the burning car for the sake of his three children as he could not leave them with a father.

During the fire, Grosjean suffered a serious burn on his hand and even today after 365 days of the accident, he cannot function properly. Speaking about the same, the 35-year-old said that that it is painful 23 hours a day before adding that he needs to exercise every ten minutes to lose mobility in his hands.