Grosjean looking to push on after podium return

Having broken the top three for the first time this season, Romain is determined to stay there…

Back on the podium at the scene of your first top three result last year; a bit of déjà vu!

Yes, we had a good laugh about it with Sebastian [Vettel] on the podium! It’s great to be back on the podium and a fantastic result for the team. It hasn’t been an easy start to the season for me, but we made good progress through the weekend and are now back to where we should be. The race was really enjoyable with a lot of overtaking. There were a couple of tense moments where maybe things got a little too close, but it was a lot of fun! To come from P11 through to the podium is really satisfying.

You left it late to clinch that final champagne spot; what was going through your mind during the final few laps?

I saw P4 on the board and Paul [Di Resta] was not too far ahead, so I thought “come on, this is the podium, let’s go!” I knew I had fresher tyres but it wasn’t easy as I had to push but at the same time look after them, which is hard for a driver when you have another car in your sights. Luckily we managed to get past near the end, pull out a small gap and maintain it until the flag!

You even picked up a souvenir along the way!

Yes, our car doesn’t usually have any silver on it! Our aim at first was to go long in the first stint, but we had to stop early because of some debris blocking the radiator which was causing the car to overheat. That meant the second phase was a bit longer than we would like, but the engineers kept me posted all the time on where we stood in terms of strategy and we managed to maintain the tyres well to come back strongly.

You certainly seemed to click a lot better with the E21 today…

It’s no secret that before this weekend my feeling hasn’t been right with the car; It wasn’t the chassis, the aero or anything like that, but we managed to put our finger on the issue and I feel much more comfortable with it now. I really got the pleasure of driving back today and could put the car more or less where I wanted which is all you want as a driver. The result today is a deserved reward for everyone after all our hard work.

What’s the key for you moving forward?

We’ve had consistency already, finishing every race in the points, but now it’s the big results we’re chasing and this is a very good start to that challenge. If we keep working the way we have been so far this season as a team I’m sure we can achieve great things.