Romain Grosjean accepts he was to blame for the first lap pile-up which resulted in four cars retiring and several others suffering damage from the debris.
The Lotus driver was handed a one-race ban and fined €50,000 for the incident, a penalty he said was hard to swallow, but one he understands is just.
“When you love racing this is very hard,” said Grosjean. “I accept my mistake.”
“We know that La Source is a very tough corner. It was a bit of a crazy start as well with [Pastor] Maldonado leaving [early] and the Sauber [Kamui Kobayashi] smoking a lot.
“I did a mistake and I misjudged the gap with Lewis [Hamilton]. I was sure I was in front of him. So a small mistake made a big incident.”
The Swiss-born driver apologised for the error of judgement and insists he didn’t intentionally crowd Hamilton towards the pit wall after thinking he was clear of the McLaren.
“I didn’t change my line, I went from left to right. I was not really wanting to put anyone in the wall – I’m not here to stop the race in the first corner. I’m very, very sorry and I’m glad that nobody is hurt.
“But I have to say it is a very, very hard decision to hear.”
Grosjean has been involved in a number of early race incidents, “too many,” he said himself, adding: “if there is more than one then that is too many, I agree. But as I say it is not always the same. It’s not over-aggressive by braking 200 metres too late, it’s just most of the time misjudgement of the space I have in front or the space I have on the side.
“It’s true that we don’t see much in the mirrors and stuff like that and it goes very quick at the start,” he added. “I was to be honest 100 per cent sure I was in front of Lewis but I was not so I need to rethink about my view of the car.”
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