Haas driver Romain Grosjean was left frustrated by 10th place at the Spanish Grand Prix, feeling the race could have been different had he not lost places on the opening lap.
The Frenchman qualified down in 14th place and had a good start, but had to take avoiding action from the first corner collisions.
This cost him track position – had that not happened, Grosjean thinks he would have emerged from lap one ahead of Nico Hulkenberg, who went on to finish sixth.
He was pleased with the pace of the Haas on the soft tyre but struggled more on the mediums, coming home just inside the top 10.
“It’s good for the team to score a point,” he said. “I had a good start, then into Turn 1 and 2 there were a lot of cars spinning.
“I had to go on the astroturf to avoid them. If that hadn’t been the case, I’d have been next to [Nico] Hulkenberg or in front of him and the race would’ve been different.
“The pace was there on the softs, but I was always into traffic. On mediums – I really struggled to get those tyres to work. There’s a lot of work we can do.
“I was happier with the car than Saturday, but still we have to work hard to get a good run home.”
Kevin Magnussen had to pit with a puncture on the penultimate lap after contact with Daniil Kvyat while running in the top 10, which Grosjean said was a “shame”.
Magnussen added: “It’s annoying. We could’ve had the points with both cars, so it’s pretty disappointing. There was some contact there with Kvyat.
“I would’ve been fine, but I got a puncture from the contact. I gave it everything I had. If we had finished in the points, that would’ve been a good result for us. I’m very disappointed not to do that.”
