Pierre Gasly has revealed that Romain Grosjean apologised to him following their collision during the final free practice session on Saturday afternoon in Abu Dhabi. The two came together after Gasly was held up on his hot lap by a slow-moving Grosjean.
Grosjean was on the racing line coming around Turns 15 and 16. As Gasly pulled up alongside him on the entry to Turn 17, he raised his hand in frustration and the two came together, resulting in minor bodywork damage to the Toro Rosso.
Both Frenchmen were summoned to the stewards following the session, however no penalty was handed out. Cameras showed Grosjean enter the Toro Rosso garage to talk to Gasly, where Gasly says the Haas driver apologised for the incident.
"He apologised and told me that no one told him that I was coming, and when he checked in his mirrors he didn’t see me," said the soon to be Red Bull driver. "Then four seconds later I was already next to him.”
Drivers were going slowly in between laps in order to preserve their tyres: “It doesn’t really make sense,” Gasly continued. “At the moment we are one minute 20 [seconds] slower than a quick lap so there’s a massive speed difference between the cars.
“I came pretty fast so we did like two seconds to travel a lot more distance than the others and sometimes you look behind two seconds later the guy is already right behind you.
“Romain came to apologise to me and said his engineer didn’t really let him know and by the time he checked he didn’t see me coming. In the end he blocked me. In the heat of the moment I was pretty upset.”
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Bahrain International Circuit - Winter testing
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