Romain Grosjean will have to face five-place grid penalty in 2012 German GP – Formula 1 news
Lotus technical director James Allison has said that their driver, Romain Grosjean will have to face five-place grid penalty in 2012 German Grand Prix which is to be held at Hockenheimring on July 22 due to his gearbox change.
Grosjean could only secure 6th place finish in the British GP at Silverstone Circuit as he struggled with the problem in the gearbox during the final lap.
Even though, he was successful in limiting the damage in the preceding race. However, Allison said that they need to change the gearbox of the French driver in order to improve his pace in the race ahead which will eventually result in the grid penalty.
“It was gearbox problem and we are very fortunate that Romain didn't have problem earlier in race,” Allison said. “Unfortunately for Romain it means he'll take five place grid penalty at Hockenheim, but he certainly showed at Silverstone that dropping down
order won't stop him challenging at sharp end.”
Nevertheless, he said that they are focussing to perform well in the qualifying of the upcoming race in order to attain better result despite facing the five-place grid penalty. In addition, he said that they have full confidence in the skills of their drivers
and are aiming to come up stronger in the forthcoming race.
“We're getting there. Silverstone didn't flatter us at all. If you look at our P3 running at Silverstone, we would have been in contention for front row, or second row for sure. However, we are making progress in qualifying and we'll be in mix for first
couple of rows in Hockenheim,” he said.
At present, Grosjean is standing at 7th place in the drivers’ championship with 61 points. Furthermore, he is ahead of Jenson Button of McLaren and is 14 points behind Nico Rosberg of Mercedes.
Although, he has retired in four races in the season so far, nevertheless, he has shown some incredible performances and has scored some crucial points for his team.
Besides, he has secured two podium finishes and is surely one of the most talented drivers in the field. Let’s see how he performs in the approaching season.
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