Romain Grosjean Apportions Part Blame to Lewis Hamilton for Their Infamous Spa F1 Crash

Former Haas driver Romain Grosjean had a rather dramatic exit from the sport at the end of last season in 2020. He survived a catastrophic crash in Bahrain GP. However, in a recent interaction with Nico Rosberg, he put forward his views on another big incident in 2012 Spa GP.

Grosjean, who was involved in a first-lap crash with Lewis Hamilton, got banned for one race following that incident. A fine of 50,000 euros was also imposed on him for causing an incident that had “the potential to cause injury to others.” Needless to say, the Swiss driver has his opinions on the same. He believes that Hamilton could have backed off to avoid the crash.

Hamilton could have given some extra room to Romain Grosjean

The Lotus driver was making a comeback in that season after a two-year break from the sport. He had a few good races that year, bagging two podiums in Bahrain and Canada GP. He was involved in multiple first-lap crash incidents the same year. In Spa, Grosjean moved rapidly across Mclaren of Lewis Hamilton around turn 1 that causing a collision. His Lotus went out of control and hit the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso, who had a narrow escape there. Grosjean apologized after the incident, “I misjudged the gap to Lewis. I thought I was in front of him. It was a small mistake, but a big incident.”

But after all these years, when Romain revisited the incident he had a different view of the situation. “Lewis could have also given me a little bit more room or backed off from the situation,” said the Swiss driver.

Reactions following the deadly crash

Grosjean was penalized for the incident but many thought it wasn’t harsh enough. Three-time World Champion Niki Lauda was furious about what he called a “stupid accident.” “If I had to make a decision, I would stop him for two races because this was the most dangerous act he ever did,” said Lauda as reported by BBC.

Meanwhile, Hamilton refused to discuss the incident. “I really don’t want to talk about the start. People can see what happened,” said the Briton. Fernando Alonso, who is thought to have missed out on WDC that year due to that incident, looked more considerate towards his former teammate Grosjean. “No one does this on purpose. They were fighting, two aggressive drivers on the start – Lewis, and Romain – and this time it was us in the wrong place and the wrong moment,” said the Spaniard.

Let us know your opinion on the incident.

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