Grosjean: “I have an extraordinary team!”
Romain Grosjean secured very good positions today during free practice 3 and the first part of qualifying. But in Q2, the Frenchman was hindered by traffic and will start from 13th place. A number that becomes significant when you consider that the Frenchman has already experienced three crashes this weekend. He can nevertheless count on his team.
During the first part of the qualifications, Grosjean set the 2nd fastest time, despite the rain and a late start, proving his potential. However, in Q2, the result was quite different as the Frenchman couldn’t improve his last lap time, while all his competitors did, and he ended up only 13th. He explained that he was caught in traffic: “I am stuck behind a car, it’s unfortunate, but traffic is part of Monaco and that’s it…”
« The moment I catch up to him is the second-to-last lap of the qualifiers. He doesn’t let me pass; he’s in a turn, and anyway he knows I wouldn’t have bothered him because I’m faster, but he doesn’t let me through and I stay in his exhaust until the end, so… » argues Romain Grosjean with a frustrated look.
The Lotus driver had an accident in Free Practice 2 on Thursday and then another one this morning in Free Practice 3 around noon. His team only had a few hours to repair the numerous damages. Mission accomplished for Lotus, who delivered Grosjean’s car at 2:06 PM, just in time for him to achieve a very good performance in Q1: “I have an extraordinary team. The work they did to get the car ready for me between noon and two, at exactly 2:06 PM, is incredible!”
« We have a car that we know can make the front row… Now we know that Monaco is not always fair. Traffic is part of qualifying… I was the butt of the joke, » he continues.
The free practices have shown it quite well. The worst position we’ve had is 3rd in Free Practice 1. We’re 2nd in Free Practice 2, 2nd in Free Practice 3, and we were clearly capable of fighting for a very, very good position in qualifying… Now we can’t say the race is over, Monaco is long, we’ll give it our all.
From our special correspondent in Monaco.
