McLaren refused to be drawn on the accident which saw Lewis Hamilton crash out at Spa, but said enough to make clear they believe Grosjean was at fault.
Sky Sports F1 punditry united in opinion that Lotus was at fault
The McLaren team have refused to be drawn on the first-corner accident which saw Lewis Hamilton - and three other drivers - crash out at Spa, but said enough to make clear they believe Romain Grosjean was at fault.
Off the line at the start of the race, Grosjean's Lotus banged wheels with Hamilton's McLaren, setting in motion one of the most frightening crashes in F1 in many a year. The Lotus was pitched over and then onto the nose of Fernando Alonso's Ferrari, while Hamilton's broken McLaren then shunted into Sergio Perez's Sauber.
"It was clearly Grosjean's fault," summarised
Sky Sports F1 expert Anthony Davidson in the wake of colleague Martin Brundle opining during commentary of the race that the Lotus "didn't leave enough room" after cutting across the McLaren.
"Lewis couldn't go any further right," concurred Damon Hill. "And if you start moving when a guy is coming over that aggressively then he will keep coming so even that is no guarantee that you'll avoid an accident anyway."
For their part, McLaren opted to keep their own counsel after the race, but, reading between their spoken lines, it was clear they believed that Grosjean was to blame.
"Lewis was taken out," declared team boss Martin Whitmarsh, while Sporting Director Sam Michael indicated that the team would await the stewards' verdict before commenting officially.
However, when pressed for a view, Michael told
Sky Sports F1: "I think what happened is that Romain came across and squeezed. Romain didn't have anyone on his left-hand side and Lewis had nowhere else to go because he was already on the side of the track. I don't think he [Romain] saw him. Normally he is a good driver."
Hamilton himself was even more reluctant to comment on the accident.
"It wasn't great, I've got a bit of a bruise on my leg. I was more worried about Fernando," Lewis told Sky F1's Natalie Pinkham.
"It's clear what happened."
Which was?
"It doesn't really matter. I'm just looking forward to the future."
