Grosjean remains frustrated with his Sepang result

Romain Grosjean had a good race at the Malaysian Grand Prix after having an average start from tenth place on the starting grid. Cautious in the soggy conditions of Sepang which had been fatal to him last year, the Lotus driver moved back into the peloton to climb to fifth place. The Frenchman ultimately had to settle for sixth place after being unable to resist the return of Felipe Massa who had fresher tires in the final laps.

“The start was quite tight and I didn’t start very cleanly. From then on, I was forced to fight all the time. The car found a good pace at times, but it wasn't easy. explains the 2011 GP2 champion. “I spent a lot of time stuck behind Felipe (Massa) in the middle of the race and I am convinced that if I had been able to pass him earlier, I would have stayed in front of him afterwards. But at the end of the race my tires were cooked, so I could only let him pass. Once or twice too, maybe the latecomers could have made things easier for me. »

Despite the frustration of having failed outside the top five, the results of the weekend are satisfactory for Romain Grosjean since he finished ahead of his teammate Kimi Räikkönen (who received three penalty places on the grid) after having had struggling to compare against the Finn last weekend in Melbourne. His performance added to the seventh place of the 2007 world champion allows Lotus F1 Team to occupy second place in the Manufacturers' Championship, tied on points with the Team. ?I think we can be pretty happy with where we are today. Obviously, we always want to be in front and we are not in the place we wanted at the start of the weekend. But in the end, we got more points for the team and we will try to come back stronger in Shanghai. »

Discover the analysis of the Malaysian Grand Prix carried out by our special correspondents in the next issue of AUTOhebdo, available from Tuesday in digital version for iPad, PC and Mac, and from Wednesday on newsstands.