In the round-up: Romain Grosjean says his drive to eighth place in the Japanese Grand Prix in a damaged car was his best performance last year.
What they say
The Haas driver suffered suspension damage early on which was causing his car to pull to the right when he was accelerating.
Suzuka was a good one. The car was well damaged on lap four or five. We had fire at the back end… the fire melted the suspension.
When I was lifting off it would come back straight and I would go on power it [would turn]. Every time going through 130R I was like ‘come on, please, stay on’. I didn’t know what was wrong but I knew something had broken. That was a good one.
Quotes: Dieter Rencken
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Social media
Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:
- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Links
More motor racing links of interest:
Ross Brawn on Michael Schumacher: "It's a very difficult topic to talk about because of the privacy that the family want, and I have to respect that. And they were very moving (visits) particularly in the early days. We are all optimistic about, let's say, finding solutions in the future, and that there'll be a time when things will move forward with Michael."
Brawn 'impatient' for faster F1 revamp (Autosport)
"It's been a big challenge to move things on, but I know what's going on and I can see what's happening and I know that if we hadn't started this process, it certainly wouldn't have got to where we've got to today."
IndyCar champions Ryan Hunter-Reay and Josef Newgarden to race for Team USA (Race of Champions)
"The pair will take on a field featuring Sebastian Vettel, Tom Kristensen, David Coulthard, Helio Castroneves, Lucas di Grassi, Johan Kristoffersson and Mick Schumacher for a packed weekend of racing in identical supercars – with the winner decided by driver skill alone."
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Comment of the day
Did F1 help drive the development of lithium ion batteries? @Socksolid disagrees:
The thing that made the batteries become lighter was smartphones.
The phones today have more processing power than the desktop computers from years gone by. To handle that you need more battery.
But phones also need to not weight a ton. That’s what made the KERS even possible as an idea.
@Socksolid
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MaliceCooper
7th January 2019, 0:38
“Am I allowed to donuts?” No, Romain. You may not. Especially in Spain.
Dave
7th January 2019, 8:35
Despite being “fooled” by Pérez.
Jere (@jerejj)
7th January 2019, 9:59
I’d regard the German GP as his best drive of the season instead although the Japanese GP was decent as well especially considering the damage except for getting jumped by Checo due to not being ready for the ending of the VSC.
Yes, of course, he’s impatient for a faster revamp, but better not to rush with certain things.
PeterPegasus
7th January 2019, 21:48
Grosjean really had a hell of a 2nd half of the season. Here’s to hoping he’ll finally manage to sustain his form.