Romain Grosjean has been left lamenting after a disappointing Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, which saw the Frenchman suffer his seventh retirement of the season. The Lotus driver made contact with the Sauber of Sergio Perez, before being collected by Mark Webber thus forcing him into retirement.
Whilst Kimi Raikkonen romped away at the front of the pack, Romain Grosjean was left battling further down the order after a rather unsuccessful qualifying performance. At the start, Romain Grosjean picked up a puncture after a minor collision with the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg. This saw the Frenchman coast back to the pits for a new set of Pirelli tyres. From then on, Grosjean was on the back foot as he strove to climb his way back through the order.
However, his race was brought to a premature end on lap 37 after a collision with Sergio Perez, in which Romain Grosjean was also collected by the Red Bull of Mark Webber. Despite Lotus eventually winning the race at the hands of Kimi Raikkonen, Romain Grosjean feels very disappointed with how his race turned out.
"I’m disappointed as I was running pretty well.” Explained Romain Grosjean, who was once again embroiled in an incident on the opening lap. “It was a tight battle with three of us in a row at turn eleven, then Sergio [Perez] went off track at turn thirteen and came back on the inside at turn fourteen leaving me with no room to go anywhere else. Mark [Webber] then came from behind and we touched; it was a big shame. A great day for the team, but an unlucky one for me."
With Romain Grosjean still unconfirmed for the 2013 season alongside Kimi Raikkonen, incident-filled races such as this weekend’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix could be detrimental for his future in the sport. Although the Sergio Perez and Mark Webber incident was not his fault, his record seems to be against him when it comes to first lap skirmishes.
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