Romain Grosjean was vehement that the move pulled off by Sergio Pérez on the restart following the mid-race Virtual Safety Car period was unjust, with the Frenchman feeling he was sticking to his delta time only for the Mexican to pass him immediately when the green flags flew despite having been more than two-seconds behind before it.
The Haas F1 Team racer had been on course for a seventh-place finish in the Japanese Grand Prix behind the leading three teams only for Pérez to move his Racing Point Force India F1 Team machine ahead of him on lap forty-two, with the Mexican then pulling away in the closing laps, meaning Grosjean was forced to settle for eighth.
However, Grosjean felt he more than had the pace to retain his position but for the VSC problems, but he is already putting it behind him as the four points he earned helped Haas move closer to the Renault Sport Formula One Team in the Constructors’ Championship after the French outfit could only score one point through Carlos Sainz Jr. in Japan.
“We need to analyse what happened with the Virtual Safety Car restart,” insisted Grosjean. “I was right on my delta time and Perez, when the gap was 2.4 seconds before, overtook me straight away.
“We need to check and see if there is not a problem in the system there. I thought I had done the job on my side.
“We did our best. We had a few technical issues on the car, which didn’t make our life easy. I think without those, we clearly had the pace to be in front of all those guys. Onto the next one.”
