Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsLotus F1

Grosjean disputes Maldonado’s FP1 claim

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Romain Grosjean says Pastor Maldonado will not give up any seat time in FP1 sessions despite his team-mate saying he would if asked.

Jolyon Palmer has so far taken part in three practice sessions for Lotus this season, with Grosjean the man to step aside each time due to Maldonado’s substantial PDVSA sponsorship. When asked if there are any plans for him to miss a session instead, Maldonado replied: “It’s not down to me … if they ask me, I do it.”

However, Grosjean doesn’t believe Maldonado would sit out a session, saying he has made the request himself at the start of the season.

“It’s surprising because I’ve asked many times to swap,” Grosjean said. “It’s ten times and these ten times are going to hurt me, as long as I’m aware. But it has been asked.

“I don’t think it’s going to change.”

And Grosjean says his troubles on Friday - when his engine cover exploded in the afternoon session - highlight what a risk it is for a driver to miss out on practice in the morning.

“Missing FP1 and missing 50 minutes of FP2 because we had to solve that problem is a big loss. That’s probably the risk you take when you don’t do FP1 and anything goes a bit sideways in FP2, then that’s a day that you lose.”

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.