Romain Grosjean, Haas, Paul Ricard, 2018

Grosjean can’t explain qualifying crash

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In the round-up: Romain Grosjean is mystified by his crash during Q3 at Paul Ricard.

What they say

We don’t know yet what happened. It’s the same braking point, same entry speed, it’s exactly the same as the previous lap. There is no explanation. Same line. So I don’t really know what happened there.

It just came all of a sudden, the rear went oversteer and then the nose was stuck in the barrier so I couldn’t reverse the car. If not I could have come back to the pit and put a new front wing and go for it again.

Quotes: Dieter Rencken

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Comment of the day

There’s no doubt who was the star of yesterday’s qualifying session:

Leclerc is a Vettel-Hamilton-Alonso-level talent. You see guys like this come into the sport, and even without the aid of the telemetry to demonstrate their ability, there’s still an intangible quality that makes them stand out from the crowd. Genuinely great drivers can seemingly go beyond the limits their machinery, and Leclerc’s performances this season have been quite staggering.

Okay, he’s made a couple of errors, but he reminds me of a younger Vettel in that regard. Leclerc is throwing a Sauber – with relatively little downforce – around in a way that suggests it really shouldn’t be sticking to the road in the manner it is. The occasional spin here and there demonstrates how much he’s pushing the car to the limit, and his speed in relation to Ericsson further emphasises his class.

He’s Ferrari-bound for sure – no way is the Prancing Horse passing up a once-in-a-generation driver like him.
@Newfangled

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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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18 comments on “Grosjean can’t explain qualifying crash”

  1. Maybe Ericsson secretly drove Leclerc’s car in Q3?

    1. Brilliant LOL

  2. I give this Grosjean crash a not-enough-smoke/10.

    1. That Erikson fires was epic! Probably a bladder puncture. In a few races, FIA will decide that everyone needs bladders made from paper mache (and that goes for the humans too)

  3. Hate to see Kimi kept wasting his chances after good Q1/Q2 but maybe he need to be there one more year before Ferrari make the right decision to promote Leclerc in 2020. I think it’s appropriate to break tradition for a talent like Leclerc.

    1. Ferrari should use strong arms at Haas to put Leclerc there next year.

      1. Why? Sauber are already an actual Ferrari B-team. Next years Sauber will be a much improved car. They should use strong arms and put him in the Ferrari next to Vettel, give him a world champ as a benchmark and see what the kid has really got.

    2. If Ferrari ever wants to be taken serious with its young driver program, they should put Leclerc in the Scuderia next year. If this guy is not good enough, who will ever be?

    3. Leclerc will surely be Vettel’s teammate at Ferrari next year, maybe even later this season at the rate he is going, and he only has to do a better job than Räikkönen (which he will definitely do) to prove it to be the correct decision. At worst he is a decent outside bet for the 2019 driver’s world championship.

  4. And to think grosjean still harbours ambitions to drive for ferrari. Is performance this year is dreadful.

  5. Yes lets grind talent year after year.
    Lets bring leclerc to a big team now.
    But anything below 19-20 titles would be a total failure and totally his fault.
    If only verstappen had lived the hype we wouldnt need to burn another young driver.

    1. Verstappen isn’t exactly not living up to his hype, he’s been performing well, but he’s been granted the pay check and the team of a world champion without becoming a fully rounded driver first. Leclerc has all the hallmarks of a champion, if the seat is available why not much him into a car that has the opportunity to win/podium. Give him the seat, a world champion as a bench mark in the car next to and see how he handles it. Just don’t build him up to be a demigod and tell him the team will be built around him…

    2. Patience..

  6. the track promise little overtakes and much traffic.
    maybe rain and safety car could make things interesting

  7. I agree with the COTD.

  8. Grosjean’s crash can be explained by the fact that Grosjean was driving the car.

    The guy spun behind the safety car in Baku and spun like a lunatic in Spain.
    At least he only spun in qualifying here, instead of the race.

    1. @andrewf1 Don’t say that so early. The race hasn’t even started yet, so GRO has plenty of time to crash in race as well.

  9. I’m beginning to think Grosjean is haunted.

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