Saturday's (September 2nd) Belgian Grand Prix started dramatically, with four drivers being forced to exit the race following a devastating first-corner crash.
The accident happened as a result of Romain Grosjean clipping the wheel of Lewis Hamilton's McLaren, with Grosjean's Lotus then smashing into the back of Sergio Perez. Grosjean was then propelled into the air, his wheels narrowly avoiding championship leader Fernando Alonso's head as he leapfrogged over the cockpit of Alonso's Ferrari.
This marks Grosjean's seventh early-race incident this year, with the Frenchman swiftly apologising for his mistake following his ejection from the race. "I accept my mistake", he said, adding: "I misjudged the gap with Lewis. I thought I was in front of him."
"It was a small mistake, but a big incident. I'm very sorry, and I'm just glad nobody is hurt. That's the main thing."
Grosjean was fined 50,000 euros for the incident and has also been banned from next Sunday's (September 9th) Italian Grand Prix at Monza. Speaking of his lengthy list of crashes, Grosjean said: "If there is more than one (mistake) then that is too many. It is too much. I know that.
"Some are not my fault, but I will analyse and I will try to not repeat it in the seven last races. For sure I don't want to do any more (crashes), so I will work as much as I can to try and avoid those."
"It's just most of the time misjudgement of the space I have in front or the space I have on the side. It's true we don't see much in the mirrors and stuff like that and it goes very quick at the start."
The crash was reminiscent of a similar incident at the 1998 Belgian Grand Prix, which was restarted following a huge collision on the first corner.
Photo: Getty Images
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