Coulthard unsure about cause of accident

The 37-year-old Scot crashed into the barriers on the right-hand, under braking for the chicane at the exit of the tunnel.

The impact ripped off the front wheel and the car careered at speed down the escape road.

"I'm fine," Coulthard told UK broadcaster ITV afterwards. "It's the worst place to have a crash but thankfully I went down the escape road."

Coulthard explained that he couldn't be sure whether or not the crash had occurred due to a failure at the rear of the car or simply an error of judgement.

"We need to check the data, but when I hit the brakes the car turned. At the point on the track you go over a rise so it is quite possible that I locked the rear axle. But normally when that happens, you just release the brake a little bit.

"So will check the car and see if there was anything going wrong at the rear, because it turned very quickly and I hit the wall quite hard.

"It's normal to have the rear go light there because we don't have engine braking and things like that, but you drive with that in mind. I'm surprised that what happened was so violent."

Jenson Button was knocked unconscious in a similar accident five years ago when he thumped the separator wall between the track and the escape road.

Ironically Coulthard qualified for the top ten shoot-out despite missing most of Saturday morning's free practice session with an oil pressure problem, and was on another fast lap when the accident happened.