Romain Grosjean might have escaped his heavy Russian Grand Prix crash unharmed, but the force of the impact broke his seat in two according to the Frenchman.
“I’m feeling pretty good, especially considering the force of the impact; I broke my seat!” Grosjean revealed.
“It was my biggest impact for quite a while and when I knew I was going to hit the wall I took my hands off the wheel, closed my eyes and braced myself.
“It’s a testament to all the safety inherent in the car and the other safety devices, so a little thank you to Bell, HANS, Enstone, the circuit, the FIA and the marshals and medical personnel. Also a big thank you to my crew who had to pick up the pieces and put the car back together.”
The Lotus driver had been following Jenson Button’s McLaren closely at the time through the long left-hand Turn 3 and simply ran out of downforce, explained the team’s technical director Nick Chester.
“There is no indication in the data and in the parts that anything broke and subsequently caused the accident,” he said. “
It isn’t easy to draw conclusions in any accident investigation but it looks like Romain was maybe a little bit close to the McLaren and lost some downforce, running out of grip effectively.
“There is nothing that we can see that makes it a car failure.”
