Romain Grosjean put his first points on the board for 2020 by finishing P8 in Sunday's Eifel GP, a top-ten result the Haas driver feared he had achieved with a broken finger.
Grosjean was following Alfa Romeo's Kimi Raikkonen in the opening laps of the race when the Finn ran wide on the exit of Turn 12 and projected a spray of gravel into the path of the Haas.
"I got hit badly by some gravel from Kimi and it's f***ing hurting", quipped Grosjean over the team's radio.
After the race, the Frenchman said the pain was so intense that he was convinced his finger was broken.
"Kimi went in the gravel and it hit me in the wrong place and was quite painful initially," he said.
"I thought it was broken initially, there’s a big bruise on the knuckle. But for a few laps I was driving with a straight index finger."
Despite the discomfort, Grosjean put his head down and gradually moved up the order, making good use of a one-stop strategy - despite a Safety Car deployment in the latter part of the race - to propel himself into the points for the first time this season.
"I’m very happy for everyone [in the team] and for all the strong work we’ve done recently," he said.
"Since Silverstone race 1 we’ve been really nailing the car and getting better and the stars aligned today.
"When the Safety Car came that was not really good news for me, but we managed to get some temperature back in [to the tyres] and hold onto P9. So that is good news."
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