Canadian GP F1: Grosjean thinks pit mix-up cost Lotus shot at third
Romain Grosjean says his pitlane race with Lotus Formula 1 team-mate Pastor Maldonado hindered his chances of challenging for third place on the grid for the Canadian Grand Prix
Lotus released both drivers from their garages at the same time for their final runs in Q3, leading to a brief race between the two to the pitlane exit.
Grosjean eventually fell in behind Maldonado, but failed to improve on his final Q3 run and slipped behind the Williams of Valtteri Bottas in the final classification.
Given there was less than two tenths of a second covering Kimi Raikkonen's third-placed Ferrari, Bottas, and the Lotus, Grosjean reckoned better preparation for that final run might have made the difference.
"It was just a misunderstanding between the two timing going out of the garage," explained Grosjean, when asked about the incident.
"It didn't help the preparation of the last lap.
"I thought I could take the slipstream from Pastor but I was too far [away] at the start of the lap.
"Not the ideal way of starting the last lap in Q3, but I think the track was probably a bit slower at the end so I don't think there's much we could have done.
"[With] perfect preparation, perfection slipstream - because you can easily gain a tenth on the back straight - I could have probably been P3.
"It's better to be on the clean side of the grid here - P5 is better than P4 - but coming here five and six is already a very good result."
Grosjean said Lotus's improved form in Canada, where both cars qualified in the top six for the first time this season, suggests the team has made good progress in finding the correct wing levels for high-speed, low-downforce circuits.
"Coming here you never know how it's going to work with the wing level you bring here, but it seems to work very well, so it's positive for Austria, for Spa, for Russia, wherever else we'll use that drag level," Grosjean added.
"To be fair the pace we've shown since FP1 has been representative.
"We were P3 this morning, P1 in Q1, I had the perfect lap in Q2, which allowed me to be P3, and the last run was probably a bit hurt by preparation, but generally our pace has been good all weekend."
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