Grosjean 'really struggling' over penalty
ByAutoSport
Published 12/11/2017 at 21:30 GMT
Romain Grosjean says he is "struggling to understand" why he was handed a penalty for his clash with Esteban Ocon at the start of the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Eurosport
Image credit: Eurosport
Grosjean lost control of his Haas car at Turn 5 on the opening lap of the race and hit the Force India, which was sent into the barriers and out of the race.
It was Ocon's first retirement in Formula 1, and stewards deemed Grosjean was at fault and gave him a 10-second time penalty and two points on his licence.
Although Grosjean apologised for the accident he believed it was a simple racing incident and reckoned he spun because he had a puncture.
Speaking in a video message shared after the race, Grosjean said: "Not the race we were hoping for.
"I'm sorry for the contact with Esteban, I was touched strongly from behind, I believe I had a puncture from there so I lost the car and he was on the outside.
"It's to me a racing incident, in my opinion, I'm really struggling to understand the penalty.
"It is what it is and we have to move on."
Ocon called the penalty a "small recognition" that he was the innocent party.
"I was ahead the braking point, and he just lost it in the rear and crashed into me," he said.
"I blame him, it was his fault, for sure.
"He shouldn't have pushed that much and shouldn't have lost the car.
"That's it. I'm not going to go and shout at him, there's no point."
Although Grosjean was able to continue after pitting, he went on to finish in 15th position, two laps down.
Grosjean believes he had the pace to finish in the top 10.
"I think it was a race where we could have aimed for points, the car felt pretty good especially with all the damage we had," he said.
"The last stint, the car on super-softs really was how I like it, so we're going to work on that and try and take some positives to Abu Dhabi."
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