Grosjean ‘laughing’ about bad luck after Canada engine woe 

Romain Grosjean says he has resorted to laughing about his tough start to the 2018 Formula 1 season after his bad luck continued in Canadian Grand Prix qualifying. 

The Haas driver was leaving his garage as Q1 went green to signal the start of qualifying when smoke started pouring from the back of his VF-18 F1 car.

Grosjean was forced to pull over in the pitlane as his qualifying lasted just a matter of seconds due to the reliability issue. Earlier on Saturday he had reported “strange behaviour” from his newly-upgraded Ferrari engine during the closing stages of FP3. 

Having failed to set a lap time, Grosjean will start Sunday’s race from 20th on the grid. 

“That’s probably up there on the podium [for bad luck this year] - I’m getting the bad luck for next season and maybe even 2021,” Grosjean told Sky Sports F1.

“It's a tough series but everyone is taking it as good as they can. We're laughing about it because at one point that's the only thing you've got to do.”

Haas has been bolstered by a revised aerodynamic package in Montreal, which Grosjean says is the only positive of a weekend in which he has already suffered damage to his updated front wing having collided with a groundhog in FP2. 

“The positive is the car feels really good with the upgrade, we had a really good pace through practice. I knew I could be best of the rest today,” he explained.

Grosjean has endured his worst-ever start to an F1 season and is one of only two drivers on the grid yet to score a point in 2018.

The Frenchman was forced into retirement after a botched pitstop in Australia, before he was hampered by bodywork damage in Bahrain and finished 17th in China. 

Grosjean spun out under a Safety Car period while running eighth in Baku, before causing a multi-car collision on the opening lap of May’s Spanish Grand Prix that led to a three-place grid penalty in Monaco, where he struggled to 15th. 

Haas team principal Günther Steiner - who has repeatedly backed his driver to recover from his dismal start to the campaign - added: “I think we cannot get rid of being unlucky, as much as we don’t believe in it. With Romain, we were finding a good speed in the car, then we had an issue with the power unit, so that was his day done.”