Whilst being checked by doctors in Valencia’s medical centre on Sunday, Mark Webber and Heikki Kovalainen shook hands.

Webber’s Red Bull had backflipped spectacularly at full speed after hitting the back of Kovalainen’s slower Lotus, before ploughing headfirst into a tyre barrier.

Pundits immediately said Finn Kovalainen should have let Webber pass, due to the big speed difference between their cars.

“In the end the thing that surprised me was how early he braked, that’s the thing which caught me out,” Webber told the BBC.

He was slightly critical of Kovalainen’s “aggressive” driving, but said the real reason for the crash was the difference between the cars.

“It turns out it’s about 80 metres before I braked for the previous lap so I mean it’s a different category,” said Webber.

Also to the BBC, Kovalainen said he thought Webber was “surprised how early I had to brake”, but in a press release said he must have “missed his braking point and he ran into me”.