Grosjean blames mis-calculation with cut-off time for Q1 exit

Romain Grosjean blamed a mis-calculation with cut-off time between options and prime for his shock exit from Q1. The Frenchman qualified in top four at the last three races but this time he was only 17th fastest after opting for medium prime tyres in the session.

“We took a gamble once again to try just one run on the prime tyres in Q1, and although it’s been a successful tactic for us recently it didn’t pay off this time.” Grosjean told reporters afters qualifying.”The strategy was to go prime in Q1, soft in Q2, and then to have two sets of softs for Q3 to try and fight with Mercedes and close the gap to Red Bull, but the times were much tighter than expected and ultimately we made a miscalculation with the cut-off time. It’s easy to look back and think what might have been, but we made the decision together and unfortunately in the end it was the wrong one.” he added.

Grosjean acknowledged that overtaking is difficult in India but he said that he’s going to attack from very start of the race to have a best possible finish.

“It’s tough to overtake here so it’s going to be a long race from seventeenth on the grid. We’ll go for maximum attack in the first few laps and see how many places we can make up, but our straight line speed is not one of the best. It’s not such a big deal when you’re at the front, but when you’re trying to fight through the pack it’s not so good. Finding some free air through the strategy is going to be our best chance.”