Romain Grosjean was the slowest of everyone who set a lap time in Qualifying for the Mexican Grand Prix on Saturday, and there was not a lot more that he could have done to improve his position.
The Haas F1 Team racer started the race weekend on the backfoot after allowing Antonio Giovinazzi to run in first practice on Friday morning, before he spun at the final turn on his first flying lap, with his tyre then delaminating on the straight to end his session.
He finally got some running on Saturday morning, but coming into Qualifying, he was far from prepared, and as a result he was not anywhere close to advancing out of Q1.
“We have had a tough weekend,” said Grosjean. “We didn’t run anything yesterday, so of course there’s always performance there.
“I had a very poor out lap at the end with a lot of traffic, so there were a few tenths in hand, but nothing that would put us where we should be. There’s no excuse. We’ve got a 2017 Ferrari engine, which is more powerful than the Sauber one.”
Grosjean looks at the Singapore Grand Prix for some motivation, where he finished inside the points when it looked highly unlikely before hand that that would be possible, but he is expecting a tough race on Sunday.
“We’ll need to work, and we’ll need to find a way to make the car faster at the circuits where we need extra downforce,” said Grosjean. “It’s going to be 71 laps with a handful of a car to drive tomorrow.
“Anything is possible. I don’t want to be super positive saying everything’s going to be great, but you never know in the race. It’s a tough circuit and cooling is a problem for everyone.
“Brakes are going to struggle. In Singapore, we were not supposed to score points and we did. There’s always hope, but definitely it’s going to be a tough one.”
