Romain Grosjean had a disappointing Malaysian Grand Prix after a brake failure meant he didn’t see the chequered flag.
The Haas F1 Team driver had made a good start after he picked up three positions when he took advantage of the incident between Sebastian Vettel and Nico Rosberg. He even experienced a spirited battle with the McLaren-Honda of Fernando Alonso, with Grosjean holding off Alonso for a number of laps before being passed for ninth.
On Lap nine though Grosjean experienced problems with his brakes, after he applied the brakes to slow the VF-16 into the final corner, his pedal went to the floor, leading to the car twitching side-to-side and with the wheels eventually locking. Grosjean did his best to avoid those in front of him but the Frenchman went off track and ended deep in the gravel trap.
The cause for the brake failure is yet unclear with data not suggesting anything was wrong beforehand. The plan was to try and keep the tyres alive for some time but Grosjean was unable to reach the point where tyres would start to become an issue.
“There was a brake failure,” said Grosjean. “We really don’t know what yet, but the pedal just went straight to the floor and I had to avoid the car in front of me.
“Our data didn’t suggest anything beforehand. It’s a shame. We did a really good first lap and we were looking at points running inside the top-10. Things just didn’t go very well.
“I was racing with Fernando (Alonso). He had power, so it was very difficult to keep him behind. I was then just trying to follow his pace. The plan was to try to keep the tires alive for quite a while. We just didn’t get to that point, though.”