Romain Grosjean has revealed his tears at receiving a guard of honour at Mugello after completing his TPC F1 comeback with Haas.
For the first time since his fiery accident at the 2020 Bahrain GP, Grosjean has been driving F1 machinery, sampling the 2023 Haas during testing at the Italian circuit, with the team on Pirelli tyre testing duties as well as the TPC running.
The Frenchman was behind the wheel on a rainy Friday as he revealed he was tearful at receiving the guard from the other teams present, as well as Haas, including Ayao Komatsu, current team principal, and who worked with Grosjean from his days at Lotus before both joined Haas.
"Five years after Bahrain, here we are at Mugello, and thanks to Haas, it was a special day," said Grosjean.
"Gene Haas and Ayao Komatsu made this happen, but as we say, it was a wedding, a rainy wedding, but a really happy wedding.
"I felt a bit rusty at first, and then everything came back, and I even got to do a standing start, and guess what? My last standing start was Bahrain 2020, so this time it turned out way better.
"I'm very grateful to have this unique opportunity, seeing some of the people from Australia 2016 and getting to drive the new generation of cars, so it was fantastic.
"There are just no other words, it made me cry, but I kept the visor down, but for my last in-lap, everyone from Ferrari, Red Bull, Pirelli and Haas were clapping and giving me an ovation.
"It is something I was expecting at Abu Dhabi 2020, but I think it was even better today."
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