The Haas F1 Team’s Romain Grosjean has voiced his displeasure at the penalty he received for first lap contact with the Sahara Force India F1 Team’s Esteban Ocon.
Whilst fighting in the midfield at Turn 6, Grosjean lost control and made contact with his compatriot – leaving Grosjean able to continue, with floor damage, and Ocon subjected to two punctures that led to his first Formula 1 retirement in his twenty-eighth race.
The conclusion to the incident’s investigation saw Grosjean hit with a 10 second time penalty for his actions, followed by two penalty points on his Super Licence.
Speaking about the decision, Grosjean revealed that he is “not super happy with it”, believing that the puncture he sustained courtesy of the Turn 3 melee including team-mate Kevin Magnussen, Stoffel Vandoorne and Daniel Ricciardo contributed to the loss of control.
“The only thing I can say about the opening lap is that I got massively hit in Turn 1.” said Grosjean.
“I believe I had a puncture on the rear left. I got to Turn 6 and lost the car, and I think it was just the puncture. Getting a penalty on top of that – I’m not super happy with it. I want to see the footage.”
Grosjean finished fifteenth out of the 16 finishers at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace, but focussed on the positives, saying that the car felt “really good” on the super-soft compounds even with some floor damage. However, the 31-year-old couldn’t explain the upturn in performance.
“The positive from the race is that the last stint on the super-soft, the car felt amazing.”
“Even though we had massive floor damage, it felt really good. We now need to understand why it felt so good and move on to Abu Dhabi.”
