Romain Grosjean: “Ricciardo hit me”

Romain Grosjean has indicated that Daniel Ricciardo was behind the early-race pile-up at the British GP which brought Lotus' weekend to a premature end.

Published on 06/07/2015 à 13:00

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The Lotus drivers did not go far at the British GP as Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado retired following the accident on the first lap at turn 3. It was the Frenchman who hit the E23 Hybrid of his Venezuelan teammate, but the former GP2 Series champion had previously been hit by the Red Bull de Daniel Ricciardo left two rows in front of him.

“There were a lot of cars in the third turn. Daniel came and bumped into me. I hit the Sauber (of Marcus Ericsson) on the outside, damaging the front wing. My car went to the left and I hit Pastor”, explained the former GP2 Series champion.

Romain Grosjean was all the more saddened as it was his second consecutive abandonment after the Austrian GP on June 21 where he had to dismount following a gearbox problem. “It was a very short race for the team. Nobody likes to finish a Grand Prix like this after all the effort put into preparing the cars”, regretted the French pilot.

Daniel Ricciardo finally retired following an electrical problem. The race management decided not to sanction any driver following the accident.

Discover the analysis of the British GP carried out by our special correspondents in the 2019 issue of AUTOhebdo, available from Monday evening in digital version on all platforms, and from Wednesday on newsstands.