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Charlie Whiting explains Grosjean's French GP penalty

18:42, 25 Jun 2018

byJake Williams-Smith

FIA race director Charlie Whiting has explained why Romain Grosjean was handed a 5-second time penalty for his involvement in the first lap chaos during the French Grand Prix. The Haas driver made contact with Force India's Esteban Ocon on the opening lap.

Whiting explained after the race that the penalty was handed out after looking at the incident and concluding that the Haas driver had made an unnecessarily aggressive move.

“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.”