Halo likely saved Leclerc from debris strike - Whiting

Before coming to rest, the Spaniard's auto flew frighteningly close to the cockpit of Charles Leclerc's Sauber, evoking memories of a similar incident in 2012 when Alonso saw Romain Grosjean spin across the front of his Ferrari. The accident also caused damage to Daniel Ricciardo's Red Bull, which, in a chain reaction, hit Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari.

The Renault driver told stewards he had "completely misjudged" his braking for turn one when he smashed into the back of Alonso's McLaren, pitching the vehicle into the air over Charles Leclerc's Sauber.

On the short run down to La Source hairpin, Nico Hulkenberg appeared to either have an issue or brake too late, slamming into the back of Alonso's McLaren. "I had a good restart after the safety auto, and after that it was a very smooth race", he added.

"He hit my auto and then I went over Charles".

Speaking after the accident, Alonso made a comparison with the huge accident triggered by Romain Grosjean at the same corner in 2012.

He ended the critical lap 1.5secs behind, after which the race settled into a familiar pattern, with Vettel building a comfortable lead of about five seconds or so and holding it there, and Verstappen equally safe in third almost 30 seconds behind.

"The Stewards reviewed video evidence, heard from the driver of auto 27 (Nico Hulkenberg) and the team representatives".

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It's the first incident of the sort in F1 to test the merits of the halo since its introduction at the beginning of the 2018 season, and has prompted F1 race director Charlie Whiting to take a closer look in the coming days at how the device held up. The high-speed camera won't tell us an very bad lot, the on-board camera that we've seen so far is not particularly clear.

Hulkenberg...said: "I misjudged my braking point a little bit and there was no real time to recover it". You arrive at a speed where it is impossible to negotiate the corner.

Alonso said there was no longer a need to ask whether the Halo was a good thing, while Williams chief technical officer Paddy Lowe congratulated those behind its development on "a tremendous result" for Leclerc.

"On the positive side we are all OK, with Charles, with the halo".

Hulkenberg also received three points on his superlicence, which brings his total to four for the year.

"This system was not in force when an incident not dissimilar to this, occurred in 2012".