• Australian Grand Prix

Grosjean blames Maldonado for crash

ESPNF1 Staff
March 18, 2012 « Lotus capable of more - Raikkonen | Massa blames Ferrari's balance for 'poor' weekend »
Romain Grosjean retired after colliding with Pastor Maldonado on only the seventh lap © Sutton Images
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Romain Grosjean has blamed Pastor Maldonado for the collision which prematurely ended his Australian Grand Prix.

Grosjean had endured a poor start and was down in sixth place on the second lap when Sebastian Vettel passed Nico Rosberg in front of him, slowing the Mercedes. Grosjean's momentum was affected in to turn 13 and Maldonado dived up the inside under braking. There was contact on the exit of the corner though, breaking Grosjean's steering arm and forcing him to retire, and Grosjean said that he felt Maldonado was to blame.

"I think we could have achieved a great result today," Grosjean said. "It's frustrating as I really wanted to make the chequered flag and even the podium, but on the positive side the car is performing very well. I was keeping pace with the guys in front of me and everything was looking good. My start wasn't great so we'll need to have a look at the data.

"Then of course there was the collision with Pastor (Maldonado). From what I saw he braked far too late and hit my right front wheel which broke the steering and that was it; my race was over. The team deserved better because they have been working very hard, but by tomorrow morning it will all be a memory. We'll move on to Malaysia now which is one of my favourite circuits and focus on getting a result there."

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