Disclosed examples include integrated circuits, output driver circuits and protection circuits to protect an output transistor connected between a driver output node and a first intermediate node, including a resistor connected between the output node and a gate terminal of the output transistor, a diode connected between a second intermediate node and the output transistor gate terminal, and a switching device to electrically couple the second intermediate node with a reference node to turn on the output transistor to allow a second transistor to control a voltage of the output node when a control signal is in a first state, and to disconnect the second intermediate node from the reference node to prevent current flow through the resistor to control a gate voltage of the output transistor when the control signal is in a different second state.