Penalized during the race with a drive-through penalty for overtaking Felipe Massa while off the track limits, Romain Grosjean was once again subjected to the stewards’ wrath, receiving a 20-second penalty for his collision with Jenson Button. The Frenchman still retains his sixth place at the finish, behind Fernando Alonso.<\/p>\n
However, far from having improved his image, the Lotus driver once again drew the ire of his fellow racers, starting with Jenson Button: “I had to be a target for a large part of the race. I know I’m slower, but I seemed to be in the crosshairs of Sebastian [Vettel] as well as Grosjean,” analyzed the Briton after the race on Sky Sport F1. “I will see the stewards about the incident with Grosjean, but I think it’s quite clear: I couldn’t go further left… unless I went onto the grass, which is not where I want to end up when braking. It was impossible for us not to make contact. He obviously didn’t realize how narrow the circuit was at that point.”<\/p>\n
The Frenchman nevertheless acknowledged his mistakes and apologized to the 2009 world champion, still on the Sky Sport F1<\/i> channel: \u00ab With Jenson, I was a bit too far to the left. The track narrows, and I was too wide, so I want to apologize. We were both lucky to come out without damage. \u00bb<\/p>\n
Regarding the Drive Through penalty given to him during the race, the Geneva native simply considers the penalty unfair: “I had at least two wheels on the white line. I tried the outside and was pushing hard.” Grosjean also received support from Eric Boullier, Lotus team director: “I feel the same way because I believe the penalty was too harsh. He had nowhere else to go so he was slightly over the line but only by a few centimeters.”<\/p>\n
For his part, Fernando Alonso is pleased with the penalty given to the Frenchman, as he considered him too aggressive in this race, especially during the start: \u00ab We thought the start was our only opportunity because we weren’t fast enough. [But] we couldn’t take advantage of it. Grosjean only focused on me, maybe he forgot that there were 22 of us on track. I was happy that he received a penalty afterward to somewhat compensate for his aggressiveness. \u00bb<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For his clash with Jenson Button, Romain Grosjean received a 20-second penalty that does not change his final ranking. However, after already receiving a Drive Through penalty for overtaking beyond the track limits on Felipe Massa, Grosjean is criticized by some for his excessive aggressiveness, starting with Fernando Alonso.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":40660,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,1749],"tags":[360,549,698],"class_list":["post-16968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-f1","category-news","tag-alonso","tag-grosjean","tag-button"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n