Six months after his horror crash at the Bahrain Grand Prix that ended his Formula 1 career, Romain Grosjean took matters into his own hands to fight another, much smaller fire.
The Coyne / Rick Ware driver’s two races at the IndyCar Detroit Grand Prix followed a similar and frustrating pattern: good qualifying in the morning, showing the pace of a competitor while minor collisions put him outside the top 10, followed by a noticeable retirement.
It fell on its own Saturday, resulting in a crucial red flag. On Sunday it spun due to a brake failure and shortly afterwards its front windows caught fire. Fearing for his car, Grosjean grabbed a fire extinguisher to put out the flames himself, although the security team arrived before he could use it and pulled him away from his smoldering machine.
A weekend ended with clear potential for better results. But a number of setbacks – including some from himself – left Grosjean at the helm without checking the checkered flag on his first visit to the Belle Isle road circuit.
“It’s been a pretty busy weekend in Detroit,” said Grosjean. “I think we had two mega qualifying results with a third yesterday and a fifth today.”
On Saturday, Grosjean finished in the top 10, but found his car by a handful early on. “We had a little more problems with the balance. But we persevered with the restart after the red flag and looked good. “
“I attacked Simon Pagenaud but unfortunately we touched and it caused a puncture.” That dropped Grosjean to 21st place. “Then I ran back and tried to find some speed, but I was a little optimistic and ended up in the wall.”
The race on Sunday started with Grosjean in the middle of the fight, just one corner into the race. An early retirement from Alexander Rossi nailed Grosjean between Rossi and Scott Dixon, who all had a little contact.
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While racing with Jack Harvey, after both drivers made their second pit stops, Grosjean Harvey stabbed Harvey in a half-turn while attempting to overtake and received a drive-through penalty for avoidable contact for Grosjean. This buried Grosjean in 18th place for most of the race, where he stayed until he was eliminated with red brakes.
“I got trapped at the start of the race and lost a few positions,” explained Grosjean. “Then we tried to get into the race, but I got a drive-through penalty and we tried to come back from there.
“At some point we had a brake fire and I had to put out a fire, but we’re all good here,” he added with a wry smile.
“I think the positive of the day is that we have improved the car a lot compared to yesterday and we can now look forward to Road America.”
Grosjean’s number 51 Dale Coyne Racing with Rick Ware Racing is currently 16th in the IndyCar championship standings, which includes results from Grosjean as well as from former Haas F1 colleague Pietro Fittipaldi in Texas and the Indianapolis 500. End-of-Season Championship participants will receive a $ 1 million bonus at the end of the season under the IndyCar Leaders’ Circle program.
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