Romain Grosjean finished the European Grand Prix in thirteenth for Haas F1 Team.
The Frenchman had a good start at the Baku City Circuit as by lap ten, he climbed to eighth. Once he pitted for the Soft compound, Grosjean joined the grid in seventeenth, and he managed to climb back up to twelfth by lap 25. The planned one-stop strategy was forced to be scraped however after he had to make a second pit stop due to a build-up of debris in the VF-16’s radiator intake ducts.
The American-led team had no choice but to pit Grosjean as there was a risk of the engine overheating. From here he finished the Grand Prix on the Medium compound. Grosjean believes the team did their best but they are currently not where they would like to be on the grid.
“The car felt very good at the beginning of the race and everything was going well,” said Grosjean.
“We then had a bit of rear (tire) graining and we had to pit to go on to the soft tires. The plan was to go to the end. We then had too much rubbish at the front of the radiators and we had to stop again to clean them.
“That extra stop cost us a lot of performance. We had to fit the medium tires to go to the end, as we didn’t have any more softs. We did our best, but we’re still not where we want to be.”
