IndyCar driver Graham Rahal has criticised fellow racer Romain Grosjean after the two of them came together in the Indy Grand Prix of Alabama, with Rahal saying the Frenchman had overstayed his welcome in the American series. With four laps to go in Sunday's race at Barber Motorsports Park, ex-F1 driver Grosjean forced his way inside Rahal at Turn 5 as the pair battled for seventh place. The two cars touched at the apex of the corner, and then made contact again at the exit as Grosjean appeared to let his car drift wide into Rahal's. Rahal criticised Grosjean's move over the radio at the time of the incident, and said after the race that it had been too aggressive. "I think it's clear," Rahal told NBC Sports after the race. "Just watch the in-car camera and look at the angle of his head. I knew Romain was going to dive-bomb me because I had already been warned that's what he's doing." Rahal added that Grosjean had previously made contact with other drivers at earlier races in the 2022 IndyCar season. "I'm just frustrated because this isn't the first time," he said. "At [St Petersburg] he hit everybody he could hit. We come here, he hit [Alex] Rossi, he hit [Colton] Herta, he hit me. At some point, we've got to clean up our act."
Rahal: This guy's overstayed his welcome
Grosjean also gained a reputation for being somewhat accident-prone during his 10-year stint in F1, notably receiving a one-race ban in 2012 for his part in several first-lap collisions. Rahal intimated that Grosjean is becoming similarly known in IndyCar. "As another driver in the series told me, you can't teach an old dog new tricks, and it's kind of been [Grosjean's] reputation over his whole career in Europe, and we're learning his reputation quickly here," he continued. "So to me, if Race Control doesn't want to do anything, then they're not going to do anything. But when we go and punt him, they'd better not do anything to me. "In the past, I've been penalised for a lot less than that." Rahal added that several other drivers on the IndyCar grid had also been critical of Grosjean, who moved to the US-based series in 2021 after losing his F1 drive with Haas. "I think the drivers need to get together, all of us, because I'm not the only one who's got a problem," he claimed. "I think it's quite a significant amount of drivers who've had run-ins with this guy. "When the roles are reversed, officiating better be consistent, that's all I'll say, because it's going to be reversed at some stage and I'm not going to play nice. "This guy's overstayed his welcome."
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