• Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - FP1

'Amazing feeling' for Grosjean on return

Romain Grosjean drove in place of Bruno Senna in FP1 © Sutton Images

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• Report:
• Button tops first practice in Abu Dhabi
  

• Race:
• Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

• Championship:
• FIA Formula One World Championship

• Drivers:
• Romain Grosjean

• Teams:
• Renault

Romain Grosjean said "it was fantastic to get back into an F1 car" after driving for Renault during FP1 for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Grosjean has participated in seven races for Renault, but his appearance at Yas Marina was his first in a grand prix session since being dropped at the end of 2009. After setting the 12th fastest time during first free practice, Grosjean said that he had focused on building up his pace gradually but admitted it had been special to drive an F1 car again.

"I'm like a kid at Christmas at the moment," Grosjean said. "First of all, it was fantastic to get back into an F1 car and the feeling is just amazing. I tried to improve myself lap after lap. We tried some different things with the car and not to disturb the programme of the team, which is the main thing, and I think we picked up some ideas for the afternoon."

Despite his own excitement, Grosjean admitted that the car was not ideally suited to the circuit and said he hoped he could contribute to the team finding improved performance.

"The balance of the car was as we were expecting. We know that we're not fantastic on slow corners so we tried a few different things. The medium tyres were quite difficult to drive with, the prototype softs were better in terms of degradation, but it is always difficult to know what to expect when you go from one tyre to another. Hopefully my feedback can help a little bit for the rest of the weekend."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.