Grosjean Handed 3-Place Grid Penalty for Norris Block

[Paul Jeffrey]

Romain Grosjean has been docked three places on the starting grid following his Q1 block of McLaren driver Lando Norris in Bahrain qualifying.

Grosjean would be found idling on the racing line into the final corner of the Bahrain International Circuit as Lando Norris looked to complete a fast lap in Q1, forcing the McLaren man to effectively destroy his run and almost causing a collision between the two cars.

Although Norris would go on to set a time good enough to put him into Q2 later in the session, the block would still be seen as severe enough for the stewards to hand out a post qualifying penalty to the Haas driver - demoting Grosjean three places on the grid from his original P8 Q3 result.

“The speed differential was 136 km/h at the point where car 4 [Norris] had to take avoiding action,” read the stewards’ report.

“The Stewards accept that the driver of car 8 [Grosjean] did not intentionally intend to impede, however it is the driver’s responsibility to be aware, when travelling abnormally slowly, that faster cars may be approaching.”

The grid drop penalty moves Grosjean to P11 for the race tomorrow, promoting Kimi Räikkönen to eighth, Norris to ninth and Daniel Ricciardo into tenth place.

Additionally, Grosjean has been awarded one penalty point on his racing licence, bringing the tally amassed by the Frenchman over a 12 month period to eight, four shy of an automatic one-race ban.

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[GP20]

Totaly deserved.
He has not been warned by his team, but hey, you are on racing track during qualify...

 

[Timberwind]

I agree about the grid penalty, but I feel it should not make a point on his licence, because it is the teams fault as well for not warning him.

 

[TrumpetReich]

Not warranted at all. As Norris said afterwards, it was Vettel's fault for overtaking Grosjean and forcing him to suddenly slow or lose his lap.

 

[NDG]

The video of that, when I saw it live, it was a little scary. I genuinely thought Grosjean will go off track and allow Norris to plow through the lap time. The last-second Norris braked, it was scary, sim-like going to crash. No typos there, I mean SIM racing like, you wish you know what the other car will do.

The penalty though could easily be just a reprimand since it's not even pole deciding situation. And Norris, though a rookie, I'm sure he knows these type of situations, not even quoting what he said, he do understand Grosjean. I guess it's easier to hand out penalties below the pecking order, or if you are known to crash by yourself more than twice a season.

 

[F1Aussie]

I think it deserved more than a three spot penalty and i reckon the point is warranted
It is nothing to do with Vettel, the fact is he planted himself on the racing line going I to the last corner when a guy on a flying lap was compromised significantly by him.
It is not all his fault though. The team are just as much to blame as they should be advisor g their drivers of what is going on around them, I can't imagine it is easy to know what is happening based upon the seating position the drivers are in.
Maybe tthe team should also be fined. Apparently it is Haas policy to not give their drivers this type of information which is pretty fricken bizarre as it is going to lead to situations like this, weird!

 

[Diogo Goetz Brand]

I think this is fair. I watched the skysports transmission and Martin Brundle said he got the information from a team member that the Haas crew doesn't spot other cars to their drivers and just lets them rely on their own rear view mirrors.
Hopefully this penalty will make them fix that, such amateur behaviour is unacceptable in F1.

 

[Durge Driven]

I don't like the whole format
I rather see a proper shootout
If top 10 had the track to themselves there is no excuses or penalties
It would make a better spectacle as all camera are trained on single car
Have track cam with 1/4 screen for cockpit, then you would see all errors from all drivers instead of guessing like commentators are sometimes forced to do

edit: Another upside is all sponsors would get equal camera time in Q3
The only time you see all cars is crossing the finish line from camera way up track

 

[Koen Verlinde]

I don't like the whole format
I rather see a proper shootout
If top 10 had the track to themselves there is no excuses or penalties
It would make a better spectacle as all camera are trained on single car
Have track cam with 1/4 screen for cockpit, then you would see all errors from all drivers instead of guessing like commentators are sometimes forced to do

edit: Another upside is all sponsors would get equal camera time in Q3
The only time you see all cars is crossing the finish line from camera way up track

I thought about that as well, let them start with 10 seconds interval at the pit exit and let them do 2 timed laps, superpole style.

 

[LeSunTzu]

Superpole is boring and often unfair with weather and track evolution (even more with current tyres). At least in this qualification format, drivers and teams must show some skills to get around some traffic.

 

[BrunoBæ]

Romain Grosjean accused Sebastian Vettel of indirectly causing him to hold up Lando Norris in qualifying, an incident which earned the Haas driver a grid penalty.

“I think it’s Vettel that made a mess,” Grosjean explained. “He didn’t respect the unwritten rule that you don’t overtake before the last corner..

Ofcourse its one of the other drivers Romain - never yourself.

 

[MetalMania]

I agree with the grid penalty, though it's not all his fault - the team should give him the info especially if other teams do it for their drivers. It's in all their best interest, and now the whole team got a penalty for it. He nearly looped the car coming through the corner, I suppose when he realized Norris was coming maybe he tried to get out of the way, but obviously was too late.

I think it's a bit harsh with the penalty point on his license though, a "near incident" is different than an actual incident. Blaming Vettel? Come on Romain, quit the whining and just get on with it and do better.

 

[Jonathan Young]

Totally deserved. Once again Romain proving that he might be fast, but he lacks a lot of the other necessary skills to be racing at this level. How many chances is he going to be given? Frustrating that this guy is still driving while someone like Ocon is side-lined.

As for the discussion about qualifying formats, I do think that F1 has got qualifying right. It s frequently more exciting than the race and I rather hope they leave it as is.

 

[Koen Verlinde]

Grosjean brings spice to the grid, in the right fashion, not the drama Stroll or Verstappen generates, but just some genuine lack of judgment that consolidates the fact these people are in fact still human beings.

Now if only Lady Luck would shine on him when it matters a tiny bit more. That wouldn't make him championship contendor material but it would bring some variety in the races which F1 could very well use.

 

[Jonathan Young]

Grosjean brings spice to the grid, in the right fashion, not the drama Stroll or Verstappen generates, but just some genuine lack of judgment that consolidates the fact these people are in fact still human beings.

Now if only Lady Luck would shine on him when it matters a tiny bit more. That wouldn't make him championship contendor material but it would bring some variety in the races which F1 could very well use.

Fair enough, and a good point. I do think that to a large extent you make your own luck though. Grosjean, like Mark Webber before him, has to take some responsibility IMHO. Your point about adding spice to what can often be a rather dull race is valid though.

 

[F1Aussie]

Ofcourse its one of the other drivers Romain - never yourself.

Grosjean has always been a whiner, last year he blamed Ericsson for putting him in the wall in Baku when he did it all himself and no other cars were near him, the guy is a flog.

 

[MetalMania]

last year he blamed Ericsson for putting him in the wall in Baku

Ha, yes I was going to put that in my earlier post and forgot to add it. I remember watching that and thinking "Did he really just say that? He actually said someone hit him!?"

After watching the Netflix documentary "Drive to Survive", I kind of feel bad for Grosjean seeing how much the other teams joke and laugh about him having incidents. Needs some better judgement and some luck, but he is quick when he puts it all together and the car works.

 

[wombat999]

Just another stupid EffWun 'Race Direction' decision.
A top 10 format would work, one warmup lap, one timed lap has proved highly successfull in other series, even the old(?) Indy four lap sequence is sensible.
And let's not overlook the simple fact that Grosjean is out there doing it instead of all the 'Armchair Experts'.