Kovalainen hails F1's safety standards

The McLaren driver walked away uninjured despite crashing at nearly 145mph when the left front wheel of his car failed on lap 22 of the Barcelona race.

And although the Grand Prix Drivers' Association is planning to request changes to the run-off area at Turn 9 of the Circuit de Catalunya, Kovalainen says all the safety measures worked perfectly during his crash.

The Finn admitted, however, that he was lucky to escape unscathed.

"It was a serious accident and I managed to walk away. I was a bit lucky, but the safety standards the FIA has been pushing worked very well," Kovalainen told a news conference.

"The chassis, the impact, all the barriers took the impact well, the FIA medical team plus the marshals and the team took the job very well and did a fantastic job to get me out of there quickly in a short period of time.

"I was able to make a recovery without any injuries. I think it is something that we must still keep working on, but the work paid off that day."

He added: "All the parts of the accident, the car, the barrier and then the lift up from the car to the medical centre, and then further to the medical centre in the city that all worked very well. It is not only luck that I was safe after the crash, it is the work that paid off and I cannot be more than thankful for that.

"To say we should carry on, improving as much as we can, if there are any areas we think we can improve then I think we should go for it."

Despite his delight at how all the systems worked, Kovalainen says there is still more work to do to improve safety even more.

"I think we probably should look more individually at the most dangerous corners," he said. "We can see ourselves what are the places and probably do decisions accordingly. It is not just a question of adding a wall here or there.

"For myself to turn around in Barcelona, it worked well this time. We have to see if we can do anything better."