Grosjean rues ‘incredible amount of bad luck’
Despite starting the Azerbaijan GP from the very back of the grid, Romain Grosjean says he is “pretty hopeful” for the race.
The Frenchman’s qualifying on Saturday ended just three corners into his first flying lap.
Grosjean got it wrong and went down an escape road, however, he wasn’t able to get his Haas into gear to work his way out.
He was told to switch the engine off, qualifying over.
“As soon as I hit the brake I locked the front,” he explained.
“I was not taking any risks, I thought I’d just go straight, reverse and come back on track.
“It didn’t go according to plan.”
Nobody likes going out in Q1 🙁
An important reminder of just how much this sport means#AzerbaijanGP 🇦🇿 #F1 pic.twitter.com/E9lusSttbK
— Formula 1 (@F1) April 28, 2018
Despite his troubles, which included several offs in the three practice sessions, he is hoping for a good result come Sunday’s 51-lap race.
“From the two corners I made in qualy I think we made an improvement,” he said. “I’m pretty hopeful for the race.”
It has been a season of “bad luck” for Grosjean who is yet to score a single point.
“We had the engine down on power in qualifying in Melbourne, then the pit stop.
“And then Bahrain in the race was going really good and we lost half the car underneath – if it had been on the side I would have carried on, it would have been absolutely fine, but it went underneath.
“In China we got the Safety Car at the wrong time and we took fire in FP3, so I didn’t do FP3, and we went into qualifying [not knowing] what to expect.
“And here again losing the hydraulic pressure reversing the car. If you put it all together it’s quite incredible the amount of bad luck I’ve had.”
