Grosjean says sudden oversteer caused crash

2017 Japanese Grand Prix

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Romain Grosjean said his crash during Q1 at Suzuka was caused by sudden oversteer and his car was quick enough to get into the top ten.

Grosjean was beginning his second run when he spun into the barriers at turn five.

Japanese GP qualifying and practice in pictures
“The first run was actually really good,” he said. “I had a big moment into turn 11, which lost me a lot of time on Kevin [Magnussen]. So I think the car was capable of going into the top ten in Q1.”

“I went for the second run, doing pretty much the same thing, and the car just had a lot of oversteer for no reason. We need to analyse that.”

After the first run Grosjean and his engineer discussed how much the car was bottoming out on the ground. Grosjean also admitted he tried to carry more speed into the corner where he lost control.

“For sure, I attacked turn three a bit faster than I had on the previous lap, but nothing crazy. I just lost it there and tried to save what I could for turn four, but it was too late.”

“I tried to keep it on track as much as I could, to avoid a crash, but I lost it a second time and had to go wide. Once I was on the grass, it was wet, so it threw me into the barrier.”

Team principal Guenther Steiner admitted it was possible Grosjean might have to take a grid penalty for the race. “We have to see with Romain just how big the damage is on his car and if we need to change something that will give us a penalty,” he said.

2017 Japanese Grand Prix

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    Keith Collantine
    Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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    11 comments on “Grosjean says sudden oversteer caused crash”

    1. It was clear before his spin that he’d messed up the s-curves and lost time. He chose to put his foot down when the car was on the grass instead of backing out of it. He can blame it on the car if he wants (definitely not for the first time), but ultimately he had the opportunity to avoid the spin and chose not to take it.

      1. Brundle also noticed the car was behaving oddly. He called it a “pointy” car.

    2. Haas must have plenty of spares ……

    3. It seems to me as though Grosjean is regressing, in terms of his driving, this year. He always has something to complain about, and he has definitely had more than his acceptable share of crashes.

      I rate him as a fast and competent driver, but this year has really not been a good show of what he can do. If he wants to be in a top car then these sorts of mistakes shouldn’t be happening

      1. He was never so good I don’t really know why he is still in F1.

    4. Hope they will come to their senses soon at Haas and fire Grosjean at the end of this year. He is not faster than Kmag and drives loads of damage.

      1. Where would we go do you think? Don’t forget he would only grace Renault with his presence when they have a ‘championship winning’ car. Seriously though, Haas could do a lot better and I probably agree with you.

    5. He’s really starting to grind on me now.. nothing ever seems to be his fault!

      He will blame the paint work on the car before he admits he made a mistake.

      1. It is the paint. Everytime there’s a “GRO” on the side it seems to end in disaster.

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