FIA explains penalty for ‘violent’ Romain Grosjean swipe

Formula 1 Race Director Charlie Whiting has explained that a “violent move” from Romain Grosjean was behind the decision of the stewards to sanction the Haas driver in France.

Debris was seen flying from the midfield group on the run to the first corner at Paul Ricard, before two separate clashes involving Sebastian Vettel and Valtteri Bottas, and Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon.

Around 30 laps into the race Grosjean was placed under investigation, and shortly after was hit with a five-second time penalty that he served at his stop, hindering his chance of points.

Whiting explained that Grosjean moved across on Ocon on the run to the Verrerie S, commenting: “We had a raft of things to look at after the first lap.

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“That one came on a bit later from the teams so we had a closer look at that and he appeared to move over and move over and move over and push Esteban to make him go two wheels off the track.

“Then it appeared Romain moved that way and made contact.

“You can see damage on the side of the Haas car and as the car is going through Turn 2 you can see damage on Esteban’s car too or something rubbing on the ground I suspect it was the front wing but I am not sure.

“We’ll never know as [Ocon] he crashed at the next corner. That’s the reason for it, Romain moved left suddenly. He was easing him left and then made a sudden and violent move to hit him.”

Grosjean classified in 11th position, meaning he has still yet to score a point in 2018.