Grosjean criticises Hamilton blocking decision

Romain Grosjean risked the wrath of the stewards at the British Grand Prix on Saturday when he hinted that their decision not to penalise Lewis Hamilton for blocking demonstrated double standards.

The Frenchman claimed he lost three-tenths of a second in his Haas when he was held up behind Hamilton, in the early stages of Q3, in which the three-time champion went on to claim pole position.

"Maybe, if it was another driver, the sanction would have been something," he said. "And it does feel sometimes like there are two types of decisions."

The stewards had decided that there was no case for Hamilton to answer after examining video and data following the session, but Grosjean was not satisfied.

He added: "I know that there is a world title going on at the front, but we are in a position where we actually fight as hard as the boys at the front -- and I was impeded today.

"We've put a lot of work in and, yes, I lost 0.35 seconds in two corners. If, next time, I have to get my front wing in his rear diffuser to show that I have been impeded..."

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff responded by appearing to accuse Grosjean of double standards himself.

Grosjean's past record includes several incidents in which he was judged to be the cause of accidents, and a ban in 2012 for causing a major multiple collision at the Belgian Grand Prix.

"There are some drivers that moan all the time," said Wolff. "They just continue moaning. I don't want to comment.

"If Romain Grosjean comes out and starts asking for penalties for other drivers, you should rather look at his track record. He should be happy he is driving in F1."

Wolff's Haas counterpart Gunther Steiner though backed his driver's views.

"He (Hamilton) is a world champion. He's better than that," he said. "Why does he need to impede? And as soon as someone is in his way, it's a disaster.

"We need to get a little bit more equal because there's always a discussion -- how do we bring the field closer together?

"We have the class that decides for itself what to do and then we have the other ones. We need to get it together, and there seems to be never any consistency with the penalties."

In a similar outburst to those of championship leader Sebastian Vettel, Grosjean claimed: "We've got very clear rules in qualifying and, with ten cars on track in Q3, we should not have those problems."

Source: AFP