Haas F1 Team driver Romain Grosjean was left ruing not having “the best of luck again,” after Formula 1 qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix as Kevin Magnussen’s crash left him unable to set a lap-time in Q2.
Having locked up on his first run in the second segment of qualifying, Grosjean was left with a single flying lap to try and advance to the pole-position shootout.
However, team-mate Magnussen hit the wall at the final corner on those second runs in Q2, bringing out the red flags, meaning Grosjean dropped out and qualified in fifteenth position, although he will move up to fourteenth as Magnussen will start from the pitlane after a chassis change.
“It wasn’t the best of luck again. It’s not been an easy day,” explained Frenchman Grosjean, who finished on the podium at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve with Lotus in 2012.
“We had a broken rear wing in Free Practice 3, which meant we headed into qualifying having not run the soft tyres,” said Grosjean.
“Q1 went okay, then in Q2 I played for the full aggressive strategy – going for one-timed laps. On my first attempt [in Q2] I locked up at turn six, so I couldn’t finish the lap.
“My second attempt was obviously then red flagged. Maybe we should have played it a bit more conservatively, or I should have asked for it, but I was happy to go for one-time, one-time in the session.
“So, that’s a bit of a shame. I don’t know if we’d have made it into Q3, but maybe just outside the top ten. It would have been a nice position for tomorrow.”
Grosjean will be handed a free choice of Pirelli tyres on which to the start the race, which he will do alongside Toro Rosso driver Alex Albon on the seventh row of the grid.
