Grosjean: Race 1 at Detroit Grand Prix
| Detroit, MI (June 12, 2021) – It was a tough and unlucky day for Dale Coyne Racing with RWR driver Romain Grosjean in Race 1 of the doubleheader at the Detroit Grand Prix with his race coming to an end six laps early. Despite once again putting in a great qualifying performance by placing third on the starting grid, Grosjean wasn’t as fortunate in the 70-lap event. While the Swiss-born Frenchman stayed with the lead group in the opening laps, even taking the lead on Lap 5, he fell to 19th after exiting pit lane on Lap 6, opting for an early stop to switch to the primary Firestone tires. Grosjean was still running 19th when a full course caution for an incident in Turn 6 came out on Lap 23 and he was 17th when a Red Flag put a temporary stop to the race on Lap 27. With the Series needing to make repairs to the wall in Turn 6, the race was stopped for over 75 minutes. Once the race resumed, the leaders made their first stop which meant Grosjean was able to move up the field into eighth place. However, luck wasn’t on his side and he had to return to pit lane on Lap 35 with a puncture following contact with Pagenaud. The unscheduled stop sent him to the back of the field into 21st place. While Grosjean was able to make his way back into ninth place by the time he entered pit lane for his final stop, he ended up making contact with the Turn 9 wall five laps later, putting an early end to his race. “We had a very good qualifying for Race 1 in Detroit, third on the grid, not knowing the track, was pretty amazing,” shared Grosjean. “Then for the race, we struggled a bit more with the balance. But we were hanging in there at the restart following the red flag and we were looking good. I made an attacking move on Simon Pagenaud but sadly we touched, and it caused a puncture. After that, I was running at the back and I was trying to find some pace for tomorrow, but I was a bit optimistic, and I ended up in the wall. Overall, our qualifying was good but for the race we still need to improve the car to be better tomorrow.” Grosjean is hoping to bounce back tomorrow, Sunday, June 13, in Race 2 which will go green at 12:50pm. Qualifying for the 70-lap event will take place earlier that morning at 9:00am ET. |