Romain Grosjean has apologised to fellow Formula 1 driver Will Stevens after the pair were involved in a collision during the Canadian Grand Prix a fortnight ago.
Grosjean, who was held accountable by the stewards and penalised, was lapping Stevens but in doing so clipped the Manor driver’s front-wing with his rear-tyre.
Both sustained damage and were forced to pit, causing delays to both their races as a result, whilst Grosjean was also given a five-second penalty and two penalty points.
The Frenchman later blamed Stevens, who hit back claiming he “had nowhere to go,” and said he expected an apology from Grosjean.
That’s now happened, with the Lotus driver taking the time in the Austrian paddock on Thursday to speak to Stevens and apologise after reviewing the incident.
“I went to apologise because I messed up,” he admitted. “I killed a big part of my race, but I broke his front wing as well.
“Even though they are fighting at the back, they are still trying to do their best so it wasn’t very nice of me to turn into him.
“It was just a failure of concentration; when you lap a car, it’s fairly easy to forget it.
“That corner is a tricky one and I was just focusing on the apex; I didn’t even realise I was turning left.
“Then I saw the reply and thought ‘oh, that was bad’. It’s something you learn from and try not to do again.”
Following the apology, Stevens said he “respected” Grosjean for doing so and insisted they could now “move on and forget about it.”
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