Grosjean avoids Styrian GP exclusion after F1 parc ferme breach

Romain Grosjean has avoided a potential disqualification from the Styrian Grand Prix, after his Haas Formula 1 team breached parc ferme rules following qualifying.

An ERS water pump failure during his outlap in Q1 prevented Grosjean from setting a timed-lap in qualifying, as he immediately returned to the Haas garage following a trip through the gravel. As a result, he was restricted to a back-of-the-grid start for Sunday’s race.

However, Haas broke parc fame rules after qualifying had finished by continuing to work on the Frenchman’s car late into Saturday evening. The work was concluded more than three hours after the permitted cut-off period.

The Styrian Grand Prix stewards carried out an investigation on Sunday morning and made it clear that such a rules breach could have led to an exclusion from the event. But Haas avoided disqualification due to approaching the stewards before it started work.

Grosjean is now required to start the race from the pitlane, meaning just 19 drivers will line-up on the Red Bull Ring grid.

"In general, a breach of Parc Ferme regulations could lead to the driver being disqualified from the event,” a stewards statement read.

“In this particular case the Stewards accept that there clearly are mitigating circumstances as [the] team would not have been able to run the car in the race without breaking the regulations and they approached the Stewards before the start of the relevant time period.

"In this connection is it pointed out that the penalty applied is not to be seen as a precedent for future infringements."