Palmer & Grosjean blame each other for collision

Jolyon Palmer and Romain Grosjean have blamed each other following the collision in Russia. The two were eliminated on the first lap after Palmer turned into Grosjean, causing Palmer to spin and Grosjean to hit the Brit for a second time.

The stewards deemed the crash a racing incident and neither driver was penalised, however, both remain adamant that the other was at fault for the collision. Palmer believes that the overtake Grosjean attempted was ambitious.

"I had a decent-enough start then heading down to Turn 2 there was a Sauber on my outside then Romain made a very ambitious move over the kerbs on the inside from behind," said Palmer.

"There was no space for me to go because of the Sauber, so maybe Romain wasn't aware of that, but he kept it in, hit me, then we were both out of the race. That was a shame for both of us really."

Grosjean thinks that Palmer should have left him more room and that he just turned in on him, destroying both efforts: "We had a great start and I was on the inside of Palmer under braking.

"I don't know why he turned in. I was there and then he turned in. I tried to get as much as I could on the apex, but he just hit me, spun and came back and hit me again. The car was badly damaged and our race was over."

Both men struggled through the weekend, with Palmer not getting an efficient practice programme in before crashing in qualifying. Grosjean was hampered by brake problems all weekend.

Fergal Walsh