27/07/2013
NEWS STORY
Romain Grosjean has escaped punishment after his car failed a post-qualifying inspection and will therefore start from the second row of the grid on Sunday.
The cars of pole-man Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel and Grosjean all underwent an "asymmetric front floor RHS deflection test," which the Frenchman's E21 failed, an alleged breach of Article 3.17.5 of the FIA Formula One Technical Regulations.
However, after a full investigation the stewards opted not to take any further action, explaining: "Based on the telemetry it was apparent that the car suffered an impact during Q2 resulting in a vertical acceleration ranging from -7.3g to +11.1g.
"Video evidence verified the car bottomed at Turn 11 consistent with the telemetry. It is considered reasonable that this impact caused a fracture in the Floor Stay of car 8. It was confirmed by physical examination that the Floor Stay on car 8 (Grosjean) was identical to that on car 7 (Raikkonen) which was intact.
"'Lifing documents' (which show the history of each part) indicate the car 8 part had been fitted for in excess of 600 kms including a full race."
The stewards therefore concluded that the failure of this part was due to the impact in Q2 and that this subsequently caused the car to fail to meet the requirements of Article 3.17.5.
Accordingly they deemed this to be a case of accidental damage, not a case of non-compliance.
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