15/07/2017
NEWS STORY
Romain Grosjean has expressed his surprise after the Silverstone Stewards opted to take no further action against Lewis Hamilton following the incident in Q3 today.
As the Frenchman came to the end of his first flying lap, he encountered the Briton who was just about to start his. Feeling he lost time behind the Mercedes, Grosjean gesticulated his frustration and reported the incident to his team.
The Stewards subsequently examined video and telemetry evidence and concluded that while the Frenchman may potentially have been "affected" by the presence of Hamilton, he was not "impeded".
Ahead of the Stewards decision there were fears that Hamilton might be hit with a grid penalty, thereby losing a hard fought pole and also compromising his chances in tomorrow's Grand Prix, his home race.
Grosjean, to put it mildly, was not impressed by the Stewards findings.
"I'm surprised by the wording, 'the driver behind has not been impeded', the Frenchman told reporters "If losing 0.35 to 0.4 seconds in one corner is not being impeded, I am very surprised.
"It opens room for messy qualifying and the rules are pretty clear," he continued. "I know there is a world title going on at the front but we are in a position where we actually fight as hard as the boys at the front and I was impeded today."
Asked if his comment about the "world title" suggested the Stewards may have been influenced in making their decision, Grosjean replied: "How can I put it? Maybe if it was another driver there would have been something. It does feel sometimes that there are two types of decision."
"We are fighting as hard as those boys," he insisted. "We have got a lot of people working and yes I lost 0.35s in two corners. So if next time I have to get with my front wing into his rear diffuser to show that I have been impeded...
"We have very clear rules in qualifying and with ten cars in Q3, we should not have those problems.
"I got a five-place grid penalty in China for being too quick under double yellow," he sighed, "and today I lost position and nothing is happening. It is frustrating that there seems to be big inconsistency between the decision and who is doing the manoeuvre."
Check out our Saturday gallery from Silverstone, here.