Romain Grosjean says his heavy accident in the Russian Grand Prix broke the seat in his Lotus.
The Frenchman crashed at Turn 3 having lost control while following Jenson Button closely, hitting the barrier on the outside of the track and bringing out the safety car. With the car heavily damaged, Grosjean has revealed even his seat was broken in the incident.
"I’m feeling pretty good, especially considering the force of the impact; I broke my seat!" Grosjean said. "It was my biggest impact for quite a while and when I knew I was going to hit the wall I took my hands off the wheel, closed my eyes and braced myself.
"It’s a testament to all the safety inherent in the car and the other safety devices, so a little thank you to Bell, HANS, Enstone, the circuit, the FIA and the marshals and medical personnel. Also a big thank you to my crew who had to pick up the pieces and put the car back together."
Lotus technical director James Chester says the incident appears to have been simply caused by a loss of downforce when following another car so closely.
"There is no indication in the data and in the parts that anything broke and subsequently caused the accident," Chester said. "It isn’t easy to draw conclusions in any accident investigation but it looks like Romain was maybe a little bit close to the McLaren and lost some downforce, running out of grip effectively. There is nothing that we can see that makes it a car failure."
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