Romain Grosjean felt his performance throughout Qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix was good, but he was left disappointed to set only the tenth fastest time in Q3, feeling that he was blocked by Max Verstappen when on his quickest lap.
The Haas F1 Team driver was on a quick lap when he encountered a slow moving Verstappen at the final corner, with the Aston Martin Red Bull Racing driver attempting to find a gap before his own final lap in the tricky conditions at the Hungaroring, with Grosjean forced to abort his lap and then suffer in the spray as he attempted one last lap.
The stewards looked at the incident but deemed no action was necessary, but Grosjean is confident heading into the race that he can make progress from his grid slot, with the VF-18 showing itself to be strong in dry conditions.
“I’m happy with my job today, but I’m disappointed with the result in Q3,” said Grosjean. “I was blocked by Max (Verstappen) in the last corner of the second to last lap and started just in his spray and couldn’t see anything in the last lap, so a bit disappointed with that.
“I think we were very, very fast on dries. I think at one point I was P1 and then P2. The car was up there, but then it rained and it was a challenge to get into Q3, which we did and that’s great.”
Grosjean feels there is scope to improve the VF-18 in wet conditions, with the Frenchman experiencing that level of extreme wet conditions for the first time in the car, but the session can offer a lot of learning potential that they can take into future wet sessions.
“There’s some work to be done on the car in the wet,” said Grosjean. “We haven’t been very competitive, but I think this is the first time we’ve driven the Haas VF-18 in those conditions, so there is a lot that we can learn from it and that’s positive.
“Obviously, everything is open for the race tomorrow. All in all, not a bad session.”
