French driver Romain Grosjean has escaped without injury after clipping a loose drain and flying into the crash barriers in second practice for the Malaysian Formula One grand prix on Friday.
His tire shredded on impact, catapulting him at full speed from one side of the track to the other.
It ended the session with 20 minutes left and, moments later, race director Charlie Whiting and another official from motorsport governing body FIA inspected the damage.
It was a spectacular incident but without consequence.
Grosjean climbed out of his Haas car unharmed, and was even able to talk about it pretty calmly moments later.
"I didn't see anything. Next thing I knew I was spinning and heading for the wall," he said. "I am fine, that is the most important thing."
But it could have been much more serious, with images showing the drain cover sticking up at an angle before Grosjean clipped it.
"It was on the racing line and I had a big hit and impact on rear right. I was spinning and heading to the wall," Grosjean said, after reviewing footage.
"They need to sort things out, it is a shame. Hopefully we find a good set-up for tomorrow and the drains stay in place."
Haas team principal Guenther Steiner was furious.
"Things like this in 2017 shouldn't happen on any circuit," he said.
"In my opinion this is not acceptable. In a race this would have been a disaster."
Explaining the incident, Whiting said that some welding came loose on a Sepang circuit he claims is "fatigued" as it hosts a race for the last time.
"One drain grate has come up. It just seems that it has broken away," he said.
"We have to get it fixed for tomorrow, of course."
Whiting explained that further checks would be made on other drains during the evening.
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner was confident the issue would be taken care of.
"The good thing is no one was hurt," Horner said. "I'm pretty confident we won't see a repeat issue."
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