Romain Grosjean has criticised the decision to penalise Fernando Alonso following the Canadian Grand Prix. After starting from the front row of the grid, Alonso fell back slightly in the race, having experienced an issue with his car. He went on to finish P7, but was later handed a five-second time penalty for weaving. Ahead of this, Alonso's form throughout the weekend left Grosjean – who was briefly the Spaniard's teammate at Renault back in 2009 – very impressed, particularly in terms of how the Alpine driver managed the mixed conditions. "What a pleasure to see Fernando [doing well]," Grosjean said in a race debrief video on his YouTube channel. "If you look at a 20-year-old driver doing his first season in Formula 1, he's got that passion, that fire. He just sends it. "Every time he was coming out of the chicane, he was going sideways. He was fast in the dry on Friday. He was very impressive in the wet on Saturday."
Grosjean disagrees with Alonso penalty
Alpine boss Otmar Szafnauer stated after the race that he felt a better result would have been possible for Alonso had it not been for the late-race Safety Car, and Grosjean is in agreement with this. "[Alonso had an] interesting strategy on Sunday," Grosjean explained. "He stayed [out] for a long time on the Medium [tyre] – 20 laps. He was maybe one of the only drivers that could have tried a one-stop strategy in the race, if it wasn't for the Virtual Safety Car and the Safety Car later in the race." Alonso was then hit with the penalty later on, and Grosjean's view is that Race Control were "overdoing" following the regulations with this decision. "He got a five-second penalty at the end. I kind of disagree with that penalty," the Frenchman commented. "Yes, he may have moved twice on the straight, but first of all, the straight is not straight, so it's not easy to go straight. "Second of all, let's bloody go racing! Let them fight, let them defend, let them go for it. It's good to have regulations, but don't overdo it. "Five seconds, that was not worth it. That's my opinion. Maybe I'm wrong, but that's what I feel."
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