Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsLotus F1

Limited injuries after Grosjean error

A Lotus mechanic suffered an injured ankle after Romain Grosjean overshot his pit box during the Spanish Grand Prix.

Coming in for his final pit stop, Grosjean skidded through his pit box and hit a number of mechanics, knocking his front jack man in to the air. While the front jack man was largely uninjured - and even retained control of the jack in the incident - trackside operations director Alan Permane confirmed to F1i Lotus had sent another team member home.

"It was just driver error," Permane said. "The front jack man is a bit bruised and battered but he's OK. The biggest problem is one of the other guys I suspect a hose got caught in his leg or something like that. He's torn ligaments in his ankle so he's got to go back home and rest up for a few weeks. So nothing more serious than that but obviously not ideal."

Grosjean himself admits he is relieved there were no serious injuries as a result of the incident.

“It was a tough and eventful race," Grosjean said. "Firstly, I’m glad to say that no-one was seriously injured in the pit stop. The rear tyres were experiencing a lot of degradation and I just couldn’t stop in time. It was a really scary moment for me, but probably more scary for the crew.

"I checked everyone was okay and I certainly owe them some beers! In the race, I lost fourth gear during the race which made things a bit of a challenge. It was a tough race but it’s good to be in the points for the third race in a row and we can be proud for what we’ve achieved today.”

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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.