Leclerc: I'm happy the Halo was there

Much has been written of the violent shunt triggered by Nico Hulkenberg's brain-fade moment, but the biggest relief was that Leclerc escaped unscathed with the scraped Halo on his Sauber testament to how terrible it might have ended on the day.

Leclerc told reporters after his 200 metres Belgian Grand Prix race, "I don't know how it would have ended up without the Halo, but looking at it, I'm happy it was there. I've been lucky on this one. Looking at the Halo, it's not looking good."

Unsighted, Leclerc did not know what happened as he was the final part of the three-car pile-up triggered by Hulkenberg who forgot to brake and slammed into the back of Fernando Alonso's McLaren, which launched over the Sauber.

Alonso and Leclerc innocent victims of Hulkenberg's rare mistake. All three retired from the race on the spot.

Alonso questioned how Hulkenberg, a veteran of 148 grand prix starts since his F1 debut in 2010 and added of the Halo, "It’s a good proof. We didn’t need any proof but it’s a good thing."

With regards to the villain of the piece, Leclerc refused to lay blame on Hulkenberg, "Nico is not a driver that has a past and you can see it's not deliberate what he did."

"I don't think [a ban is right] for this type of mistake. If something is deliberate and dangerous than a ban should occur but not in this situation."

The highly rated Ferrari protege alluding to Romain Grosjean's one-race ban for an eerily similar incident at the 2012 edition of the race at Spa.

For causing the shunt, Hulkenberg was handed a ten-place grid penalty which he will serve at Sunday's Italian Grand Prix and was also given three penalty points on his superlicence.

Note: The above (the post) sequence of photos shows the Halo before impact and the final photo shows it after impact.
Closer examination (below) shows what appears to be a T-shape crack in the Halo strut.