26/05/2013
NEWS STORY
Romain Grosjean has been handed a ten-place grid penalty for the forthcoming Canadian Grand Prix following the incident during today's Monaco Grand Prix.
In many ways it's been the weekend from hell for the French youngster who has been involved in no less than three serious crashes over the course of the three days.
Following crashes at Ste Devote on Thursday and Saturday, today's incident involving Daniel Ricciardo was even more serious, with both cars becoming airborne at one stage.
The Lotus driver ran into the back of the Australian's Toro Rosso on the approach to the Nouvelle Chicane on lap 62 as the two battled for 13th position.
"I could see that Grosjean had got a good run out of the tunnel and that he was close," said Ricciardo, "so I defended my line and the next thing I knew he was over the back of me.
"I haven’t seen it on a TV yet, but at the moment I believe it was a misjudgement on his part and a costly one that was quite dangerous, even if we are both okay"
And that's pretty much how the Race Stewards saw it, finding Grosjean had caused a collision as defined by Article 16.1 of the FIA Formula One Sporting Regulations.
Consequently, he was handed a ten-place grid penalty for the next round of the championship, though many in the paddock believe he has still not learned from last year’s mistakes which culminated in a one-race ban for causing a major pile-up at the start of the Belgian Grand Prix.
Teammate Kimi Raikkonen, who took the final point for tenth, following an amazing late charge after a late pit stop, was also summoned by the stewards, though he escaped with a reprimand.
The Finn was found to be running two seconds below the minimum time set by the FIA ECU whilst following the Safety Car, a breach of Article 40.7 of the FIA Formula One Sporting Regulations.
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