Testing – Haas’ Romain Grosjean says he felt it important to get straight back into the swing of things following his Lap 1 retirement in Spain on Sunday.
Grosjean was the catalyst of a multi car pile-up on the first lap of Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix, taking himself, Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg & Toro Rossos’ Pierre Gasly out of the race. The stewards investigated, and have given him a grid penalty for next week’s Monaco Grand Prix, as well as penalty points on his FIA licence.
However, he was back at the wheel of the Haas on Tuesday morning, setting out for a busy day of testing in the VF-18. Running the softest compound Pirellis during the morning, the HyperSoft, Grosjean clocked a 1:18.449 to go into the lunchtime break as the fastest man. While his time was eclipsed by three drivers during the afternoon track time, he finished P4 on the timesheets at the end of the day, completing 129 laps in total.
Speaking at the end of the session, he said he was glad to be back in the car so soon after his recent troubles: “The feeling was super good, and I think it was important to get back on the horse after not being able to complete the grand prix on Sunday. So, feelings were good. Hopefully, they stay there for Monaco and the rest of the season. I’m very happy with the job that everyone’s done on the day. ”
“It’s been a very good day and a very productive day for the team. We’ve done a lot of mileage and we haven’t had any issues with the car. The circuit was a bit dirty, initially, in the morning. The grip was a bit low – it was fresh. It got better and we got some really decent running. We did some very good testing with the car. We’ve learned a lot about the different tires and setup work, which you don’t get to do on a race weekend.”
