Get unlimited access
You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month.
Haas Formula 1 driver Romain Grosjean has “no explanation” for the spin that sent him into the barriers during French Grand Prix qualifying.
Grosjean lost control of his car during Q3 at the Turn 3/4 complex, spinning and ending up hitting the barriers with his front wing – which got stuck and made it impossible for him to reverse and return to the pits.
Q3 was red-flagged as a result and Grosjean failed to set a time, leaving him 10th on the grid.
Grosjean suggested afterwards that the incident had not been a simple error on his part.
“We don’t know yet what happened,” he said when asked if he had made a mistake. “It’s the same braking point, the same entry speed.
“It’s exactly the same as the previous lap, so there is no explanation. Same line, so I don’t know what happened there.
“The car oversteered and then the nose was stuck in the barrier so I couldn’t reverse the car, otherwise I would have come back to the pits, put a new front wing on and gone for it again.”
Grosjean feels the incident cost him a chance of finishing as best-of-the-rest behind the Mercedes, Ferraris and Red Bulls.
“I know that I could have been seventh and probably eighth and that would have been nicer than we are now,” he said.
“Again, we need to understand what happened. Driving there was nothing crazy going in there, so it doesn’t make sense that we blocked the rear that way.”
He believes he can still have a strong race on Sunday, as he reckons Haas has the fourth-quickest car this weekend.
“We had half a second gap to the Renault, which we should have in the race,” he said.
“We are going to try to use that as much as we can to try to overtake them and same thing with the Sauber and hopefully get some good points.”
Grosjean’s team-mate Kevin Magnussen completed Q3 but is only one place ahead on the grid in ninth.