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Injured De Villota shows her scars

Maria de Villota has made her first public appearance since almost dying at the wheel of a Marussia earlier in 2012.

The Formula 1 test driver appeared in the pages of Hola! magazine and she addressed the international media for a press conference in Madrid.

Wearing a blue eye patch and showing scars from her skull injuries stretching from her forehead all the way down the side of her nose and down her face, she recalled the emotional moment when she was first told she had lost her right eye.

'THERE'S LIFE BEYOND F1'

De Villota said: "I looked at the doctor and asked him if he was a surgeon, and he said yes. I said you need two hands to operate, and I need both eyes because I'm a F1 driver.

"At that time I did not value that this person right here had saved my life, but he saw that what really matters is life, and that I was alive. With this new opportunity I will live at 100%, as with this eye I see much more than before," he said.

She also recalled that when she saw her injured face for the first time thought, "Who will love me?"

"I'm much better, although this is an endurance race. There is life beyond F1, and I am sure the best is yet to come," she said.

Also present at the press conference was Spanish motor racing president Carlos Gracia, who would not comment on the investigation into what happened during the crash at Duxford, UK.

"It (the investigation) is still open and we should not talk about it," he said.
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