Grosjean apologises to Stevens

ByAutoSport

Published 18/06/2015 at 13:44 GMT

Lotus Formula 1 driver Romain Grosjean has apologised to Manor's Will Stevens after triggering a collision between the pair during the Canadian Grand Prix.

Eurosport

Image credit: Eurosport

Grosjean drifted into the path of Stevens after lapping him on the run to the final chicane in Montreal, damaging the front wing of the Manor-run Marussia and earning a penalty.

The apology happened in the Austrian GP paddock on Thursday, after Grosjean had seen the footage of the incident.

"I went to apologise because I messed up," said Grosjean. "It was all OK [after the apology].

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"I killed a big part of my race, but I broke his front wing as well.

"Even though they are fighting at the back, they are still trying to do their best so it wasn't very nice of me to turn into him.

"It was just a failure of concentration; when you lap a car, it's fairly easy to forget it.

"That corner is a tricky one and I was just focusing on the apex; I didn't even realise I was turning left.

"Then I saw the reply and thought 'oh, that was bad'. It's something you learn from and try not to do again."

Stevens accepted Grosjean's apology and, after calling for more respect from drivers in faster cars in the wake of the clash, insists the incident is now behind them.

"He came up to me today to apologise," said Stevens.

"It was good of him because it was a racing incident.

"It should never happen, but it was just one of those things.

"He obviously thought I was more out of the way was, but I was as far over as I could be.

"It's good that he apologised and I respect him for that.

"Now we can move on and forget about it."

Formula 1