Charles Leclerc has praised the halo cockpit protection device after walking away unharmed from a huge accident at Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix.

The halo received criticism when imposed by the FIA at the start of this season but, despite Leclerc admitting he was not a fan of the device, the fact he avoided serious injury has validated the FIA’s decision. The race director, Charlie Whiting, said it would have been a miracle if Leclerc had not been struck were it not for the halo.

The accident occurred at the first corner of the opening lap. Renault’s Nico Hülkenberg braked too late into the corner, locked his front wheels and slid into the back of the McLaren of Fernando Alonso. Alonso’s car was launched into the air, landing on Leclerc’s Sauber and making contact with the halo as it did so. All three drivers were eliminated from the race but were unharmed.

The 20-year-old Leclerc, who is in his first F1 season, said of the halo: “I don’t know how it would have ended up without 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.

“I have never been a fan of the halo but I have to say that I was very happy to have it over my head today,” he added. “I felt the impact and looking at the image of my car it is quite spectacular.”

Alonso was adamant that the device had proved itself. “The halo was a very good thing to have today,” he said.

Leclerc’s halo bore visible scarring from the impact and while Whiting refused to speculate until he had examined all the data on whether the halo specifically saved Leclerc from serious injury he clearly believed it had played a role.

Fernando Alonso’s McLaren flies over Charles Leclerc’s Sauber at Spa. Alonso’s car left black marks on Leclerc’s halo safety device. Photograph: John Thys/AFP/Getty Images

“It doesn’t take much imagination to think that the tyre marks could have been on Charles’s head,” he said. “It would be a bit of a miracle if they weren’t, had the halo not been there.”

This is the second time a halo device has been hit during an incident. In an F2 race at Barcelona Tadasuke Makino’s halo was hit during a crash with Nirei Fukuzumi. The Mercedes team principal, Toto Wolff, who had said at the start of the season that he would like to take a chainsaw to the device, admitted it had proved itself at Spa.

“That gave all the justification,” he said. “As you know, I am not a fan of the halo – I think the aesthetics are terrible. But having saved Charles from harm and injury makes it all worth it. It could have been very nasty.”

Hülkenberg has been given a 10-place grid penalty for the next round at Monza for causing the incident.