Haas driver Romain Grosjean and Renault’s Jolyon Palmer have blamed each other for their crash on the first lap of the Russian Grand Prix.
The two drivers collided at the entry to Turn 2, with a Sauber on Palmer’s outside and Grosjean going for a move up the inside.
Grosjean’s left-front wheel clashed with Palmer’s right-rear, pitching the Renault into a spin, where he then collected the Haas for a second time.
With Grosjean’s car in the barrier and Palmer’s Renault parked on the track, the safety car was deployed. Both drivers felt the other was responsible for the incident.
“We had a great start and I was on the inside of Palmer under braking,” Grosjean said. “I don’t know why he turned in.
“I was there and then he turned in. I tried to get as much as I could on the apex, but he just hit me, spun and came back and hit me again.
“The car was badly damaged and our race was over.”
Sharing his opinion on the crash, Palmer had a different view: “I had a decent-enough start then heading down to Turn 2 there was a Sauber on my outside then Romain made a very ambitious move over the kerbs on the inside from behind.
“There was no space for me to go because of the Sauber, so maybe Romain wasn’t aware of that, but he kept it in, hit me, then we were both out of the race. That was a shame for both of us really.”
