21/06/2018
NEWS STORY
Ferrari has given Haas the all-clear for Romain Grosjean to use the engine he used in qualifying in Canada.
As the Frenchman headed out at the start of Q1, his engine appeared to detonate filling the pitlane with thick white smoke.
Ruled out of the remainder of the session but given permission to start the race from the back row, it was feared the engine failure would cost the Frenchman a grid penalty at his home race this weekend.
However, after sending the unit back to Maranello, Ferrari gave Haas the all-clear to use the unit again this weekend.
"It will be in the car again tomorrow," team boss Guenther Steiner told reporters at Paul Ricard. "No damage, which is good. It is the last thing we needed.
"It went back to Ferrari and they inspected it, they said there was no internal damage," he revealed, adding that the issue was traced to an oil leak. "We just got that news on Friday last week.
"We had to bring a new engine into the pool," he added, "but at the moment we don't foresee a grid penalty for the engine or one of the components."
While now on his third power unit, Grosjean is on his third turbocharger and MGU-H, and it is inevitable that the Frenchman will soon begin accruing grid penalties.
Grosjean's qualifying issue followed his earlier encounter with a groundhog, and sees the Frenchman head to France as one of only two drivers - the other being Sergey Sirotkin - yet to score a point this season.
Prior to Canada, Grosjean had suffered nightmare races in both Azerbaijan and Barcelona that left many feeling the Frenchman had taken a significant step backwards.
"If you hit a groundhog, what can you do?" said Steiner. "You can get upset but it doesn't do anything. The engine wasn't down to him.
"He got his confidence back after what happened in Barcelona and Baku. He was very happy with the car, he was very comfortable with it, just the result wasn't there. He's looking forward to going out on track again tomorrow."
Check out our Thursday gallery from Paul Ricard, here.