Romain Grosjean was left confused after his heavy crash in the first part of qualifying ahead of Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix.
As the Frenchman began his final run, the car got out of shape entering the ‘esses’ section and he eventually lost control of the car on the exit of Turn 4, smashing into the outside barrier and doing considerable damage to his VF-17 but escaped unharmed.
“I’m okay,” he said. “The first run was actually really good. I had a big moment into turn 11, which lost me a lot of time on Kevin. So, I think the car was capable of going into the top 10 in Q1.
“I went for the second run, doing pretty much the same thing, and the car just had a lot of oversteer for no reason. We need to analyze that. For sure, I attacked turn three a bit faster than I had on the previous lap, but nothing crazy. I just lost it there and tried to save what I could for turn four, but it was too late.
“I tried to keep it on track as much as I could, to avoid a crash, but I lost it a second time and had to go wide. Once I was on the grass, it was wet, so it threw me into the barrier.”
Due to the extensive damage on Grosjean’s car, it is yet unknown if there will need to be any penalties taken while making repairs despite not making it out of Q1.
Team principal Guenther Steiner added: “We have to see with Romain just how big the damage is on his car and if we need to change something that will give us a penalty. Otherwise, a tough, long day for the whole team.
“It doesn’t seem that luck is on our side at the moment, but it will turn. We just have to look up and get ready for the race tomorrow, and try to at least get one car into the points.”
