Romain Grosjean 'saddened' by Haas decline after poor Bahrain qualifying

Bahrain Grand Prix

Grosjean 'saddened' by Haas decline after poor Bahrain qualifying

Grosjean qualified 19th in his final Bahrain Grand Prix with the team

Ewan Gale

Saturday 28 November 2020 19:51 Updated: 20:01

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Romain Grosjean conceded he has been saddened by the decline of Haas and said bluntly there was 'zero chance' the team could have reached Q2 in Bahrain.

Grosjean is entering what could potentially be his final three races in Formula 1 and is determined to enjoy the season-ending triple-header but after qualifying 19th, one place behind team-mate Kevin Magnussen, he said on team radio the result was "no big surprise" and "the car doesn't allow you to enjoy it".

Speaking some time after the session, when asked if he felt he'd had any chance of progressing to the second phase of qualifying, Grosjean replied: "No, zero."

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Expanding on his dejected sounding radio message, he continued: "The last lap was going okay. In the last couple of corners, I tried to attack a little bit more to enjoy and to drive the way I like to drive normally but the car couldn't quite take it so I lost a couple of tenths there.

"It would have been one position more on the grid. We don't really have much so that is what we have. We cannot be happy where we are. The most important thing I can do is to finish the race and to know that I have driven the best with what I have."

Grosjean will leave the team at the conclusion of the season having signed for the team when it joined the grid in 2016.

The Frenchman expressed his disappointment that the departure seems to not be heading towards a happy ending after giving so much over his five-year tenure.

"[The situation is] not ideal," he added. "I have got a bit of sadness as well because I have put a lot of effort into the project and it was going well. If you remember here in the first year we finished fifth. It feels ages ago.

"It has been a bit sad for everyone because they deserve more with the way they operate the car and the way they work and so on, I think they deserve more but with what we have, there is no miracle possible."