After Verstappen’s crash, a terrifying scene unfolded: ‘Days of Thunder’

At the end of the opening lap, Verstappen failed to keep his Red Bull out of the wall in the final corner. Behind the Dutchman, another driver was also caught out by the slippery conditions. Gabriel Bortoleto spun the Audi 360 degrees before regaining control of the car. His teammate, Nico Hulkenberg, was driving behind the Brazilian and, despite the smoke, still managed to avoid the Audi as it suddenly appeared sideways in front of him.

McNish saw it all happen from the pit wall. “Max shunted in front of him, and it was the trickiest corner in the circuit by a long way at that particular point. But it was only on the replay where it was quite evident how close it was between our two cars,” he told, among others, GPblog.

The Scottish team boss praised both his drivers for avoiding a major incident. “Both of them did a good job, Gabi, to keep it out the wall, really good job in that situation and on a banking, and anybody that's sort of seen NASCAR or IndyCar know that it is actually a skill.

McNish sees every second of Bortoleto and Hulkenberg via various screens.

“This is why I'm turning grey very quickly at times,” the team boss laughed, before explaining why his drivers reacted the way they did.

According to McNish, a spinning car follows a certain path. “And then after that, there's an element of instinctive judgment how far do you go in which direction. And certainly with a car on a banking, that's a different thing though, because they tend to go up the way as opposed to down the way.”

He concluded: "That's why I was very impressed with what Gabi was able to do to keep it in the middle of the circuit basically and not for it to spoon up into the wall. But without doubt whether it was instinct or whether it was skill and focus or anything else I don't know but it was a bloody good save."