More bad luck for Grosjean with qualie pit lane blow-up

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Romain Grosjean had barely pulled out of the Haas garage at the start of Saturday's qualifying session in Montreal when his VF-18 was immediately engulfed in spectacular billowing clouds of smoke.

A power unit problem as he drove down the pit lane meant he had to turn off the engine and pull over. Crew members scampered down pit lane to retrieve his stricken machine and bring him back.

However the situation was terminal, and Grosjean was unable to play any part in Q1. He will start tomorrow's Canadian Grand Prix from the back row of the grid.

It's just the latest stroke of bad luck for Grosjean this weekend. In Friday's practice session he hit a wild animal that had ventured into the track, shattering his front wing.

“Something went wrong," he said of Saturday's misfortune. "Maybe the beaver from yesterday was still in there somewhere!

"Seriously though, we laugh about it as it’s been a terrible series of luck since the first race of the season. We’ve had some really tough luck."

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“I think we cannot get rid of being unlucky, as much as we don’t believe in it," concurred team principal Guenther Steiner.

"With Romain, we were finding a good speed in the car, then we had an issue with the power unit, so that was his day done."

Grosjean was already on his second of three permitted engines, traction control units and MGU-Hs coming into this weekend's race. The car had also been fitted with a number of new bodywork components for Montreal.

"I was very happy with the upgrade," Grosjean said. "The feeling in the car was really good since FP1."

The team will now work overnight to get his car ready for tomorrow's race, with Grosjean holding out hope that he can still achieve something productive.

"Starting last is never ideal, but it’s one of those racetracks where you can overtake, so luckily it’s not Monaco.

"I think everyone starting on hypersofts is going to suffer from the degradation, especially if it’s warm," he added.

"We’re going to try something different. There are a lot of cars to get around. A good safety car, some luck at a good time, and we could be up there."

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Meanwhile Grosjean's team mate Kevin Magnussen proved that the Haas had good speed around the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, making it through to Q2 to qualify in 11th place.

"I think we can attack tomorrow," asserted the Dane. "Our race pace, if anything, is better than our qualifying pace.

"We’re starting with a free choice of tyre in P11, that’s probably a better position to be in than P10 and P9. We’re going to fight.”

"I think Kevin stepped up pretty good from FP3," noted Steiner. "He got a little more confident with the car and put it P11. All in all, that’s not a bad starting spot for tomorrow.”

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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.