Abu Dhabi GP: Grosjean adamant he was not to blame for clashes

While his Lotus team-mate Kimi Raikkonen took the squad's first win since 2008, Grosjean clashed with Nico Rosberg's Mercedes on lap one and sustained a puncture.

Grosjean subsequently got up to fifth thanks to making early tyre stops, but was under pressure from Paul di Resta, Sergio Perez and Mark Webber.

As the Force India and Lotus battled on lap 39, Perez's Sauber attempted to pass both, but the move ended in a collision between Perez and Grosjean, who then collected Webber's Red Bull.

"We were doing the best we could with what we had and it was running pretty well," said Grosjean.

"It was a tight battle, three in a row at Turn 11. Paul di Resta was fighting and [Perez] went off track at Turn 13 and then at Turn 14 he just came back and I had no room to go anywhere else.

"Then Mark came and it was a big, big shunt."

Di Resta agreed that Perez was at fault in the tangle.

"I just don't know what he was trying to do," said di Resta. "I was passing Grosjean, [Perez] was trying to make a mad move round the outside and left me absolutely no room.

"I just bailed out and then I don't know what happened afterwards."

Grosjean also reckoned there was nothing he could do to avoid his earlier incident with Rosberg.

"I kept my line to Turn 8 but then again there was no room for me to go," said Grosjean. "I tried to open [the line] as much as I could to Turn 9 but I needed to be there.

"It was an unlucky day."