Weekend of Highs and Lows for Grosjean in Detroit

#51: Romain Grosjean, Dale Coyne Racing with RWR Honda
Detroit, MI (June 13, 2021) – Dale Coyne Racing with RWR driver Romain Grosjean had the pace to run at the front as he displayed in qualifying, but nothing went his way in Race 2 on Sunday in Detroit with his day ending in flames due to a brake fire with 12 laps to go. 

Once again, Grosjean put in another strong qualifying performance earlier in the day by placing his #51 Nurtec ODT (Rimegepant) car fifth on the starting grid. The Frenchman was actually on his was to another third place on the grid when a red flag came out in the final moments of the Fast 12 session. 

With a fast car under him, the Swiss-born Frenchman was looking forward to a good race, but he was unable to maintain his position at the start as he ended up caught in between two cars, making contact with both of them. 

Fortunately for Grosjean, there was no damage to the car, and he was able to continue and take advantage of an early caution period on Lap 2 to head to pit lane for a set of Firestone primary tires. From there, he started fighting his way back.

However, that wasn’t the end of the misfortunes for the driver the of the #51 Nurtec ODT Honda as he was penalized with a drive thru for avoidable contact on Lap 30 which sent him to the back of the field.

Unfortunately for Grosjean, he was unable to make it any higher than 18th from that point on despite registering lap times as quick as the leaders.

With nothing going their way, Grosjean’s race then came to an end with 12 laps remaining as he was forced to stop on track due to a brake fire.

“It was a pretty eventful weekend in Detroit,” said Grosjean. “I think we had two mega qualifying results with a third yesterday and fifth today. But I got sandwiched at the race start and I lost a fair bit of positions. Then we tried to come into the race, but I picked up a drive thru penalty and we tried to come back from there. Eventually we had a brake fire, and I had to extinguish a fire, but we’re all good here! I think the positive of the day is that we improved the #51 Nurtec ODT car a lot from yesterday and we can now look forward to Road America.”

Grosjean will be back in action next weekend, June 18 – 20, 2021 for the REV Group Grand Prix at Road America.