Grosjean: "I still know how to drive"

Source: Haas F1 Team Media

F1 News

30 June 2018 at 17:32
  • Nicolás Quarles van Ufford

Romain Grosjean was the surprise package during the qualifying in Austria as the Frenchman will start from fifth on Sunday, and the Haas driver joked that it was nice for him to know that he "still knows how to drive"

Grosjean originally qualified in sixth place, but was moved up one spot after Sebastian Vettel got handed a three-place penalty for blocking off Carlos Sainz Junior in Q2. Still, Grosjean also out-qualified the likes of Daniel Ricciardo, who should have a way faster car on a normal day. A massive result for the Frenchman, who wasn't exactly oozing with confidence up until this point.

"It is nice that I still know how to drive," Grosjean jokingly said to Sky Sports F1.

"It was a bad spiral going on and it was hard to stop it."

It's now been eight months since Grosjean has scored points, which is frankly unacceptable in a car that's been as good as Haas has been this season. The Frenchman is the only one along with Williams' Sergey Sirotkin who has yet to score points this season. For context; Grosjean's teammate Kevin Magnussen has 27 points.

"It is great we have built all our weekend nicely.

"We knew we were fast but we didn't think we could catch one of the Red Bull but we did. 

"We are in a nice place to start the race and we have been consistently fast.

"I'm very happy and now I want tomorrow to go well."

He'll be desperate to score points. With both Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo behind him, he'll probably struggle to retain fifth place, but even a P7-finish could do wonders for his confidence. Just keep it out of the walls this time, Romain.