Grosjean and Webber ’make up’ after Suzuka collision

Romain Grosjean and Mark Webber have made up and moved on from their shenanigans at the Japanese Grand Prix, in which the Lotus driver once again caused a collision on the opening lap. As the pack negotiated the opening two corners, Grosjean collided with the rear of Webber, tipping him into a race-ruining spin.

After the race, Mark Webber was understandably furious with the Frenchman, slamming him as a “nutcase” after his seventh first lap incident. However, Romain Grosjean completely understood Webber’s anger and is eager to move on after yet another disastrous race. After the incident, Grosjean was issued with a hefty ten-second stop-and-go penalty which demoted him towards the back of the pack.

“Mark came to see me and I completely understand that he was unhappy.” Explained Romain Grosjean, “The only thing I could say was to apologize and that’s what I did. I’m clearly conscious of the risk at the start, I’m working on changing on quite a lot of things but work doesn’t come from one day to the other one. There is a process going on. I said I was very sorry. I’m not stupid and I’m conscious of the risk. And hopefully by now it will be a different and I will not make the mistake of focusing on the wrong targets.”

Mark Webber seemed satisfied with Romain Grosjean’s apology after the race, and is also eager to move on from the incident. After rejoining the track after the spin, Webber was way down the order in 22nd position. However, the 36-year-old was able to claw his way through the field to eventually finish 9th.

“Yeah, absolutely [happy about Grosjean’s apology].” Said Mark Webber, “I went to see Romain, we had a discussion about it and that was that. So, yes.”

Romain Grosjean has unfortunately become renowned for ruining his - and others - races in the opening laps of a Grand Prix, with the incident at Suzuka being his seventh of the season. Throughout the year, Grosjean has collided with the likes of Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton at numerous races, most notably at Spa-Francorchamps where he was the catalyst in the multi-car incident at the start. This weekend the Frenchman will undoubtedly be striving for a clean weekend, avoiding all forms of contact.

“Not having any contact on the first lap, that’s clearly one of the objectives.” Continued Romain Grosjean, “I’d say there’s work in progress and it takes a bit of time but yeah, it’s a cycle as well: things have been going bad, and the more it goes bad... I’m conscious of the risk at the start.

“There is 550 people working at Enstone to give us the best car and if you ruin everything in the first 100m it’s not good. I’m conscious of all of that and will try to take as many precautions as possible to go through the first lap – and then normally in the race we are ok.”

If Romain Grosjean suffers another disastrous start this weekend in Korea, further question marks will unarguably be raised above his future in the sport. The Frenchman has already been issued a one-race ban for causing the collision at Spa, and could well be issued a much sterner penalty if he continues to cause carnage into turn 1.

Follow me on Twitter - @AndyYoungF1