Spanish Grand Prix: Romain Grosjean's spin leaves Nico Hulkenberg, Pierre Gasly on braking point

Barcelona: Romain Grosjean said that it was a normal human reflex to hit the accelerator, and not the brakes, after his high-speed spin took himself and two other drivers out on the opening lap of Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix. [caption id=“attachment_4468047” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Haas F1’s Romain Grosjean takes part in the qualifying session on Saturday ahead of the Spanish Formula One GP. AFP[/caption] The Frenchman lost control of his Haas car at Turn Three and continued to push on his accelerator as he spun. As a result, his car created a cloud of black smoke and was invisible to following drivers as they raced into it — Nico Hulkenberg, of Renault, and Pierre Gasly, of Toro Rosso, both smashing into him. “I lost the rear end of the car and then tried to get the position back, but it didn’t work,” said a crestfallen Grosjean afterwards. “If I had braked, the car would have spun the same way. It is quite a normal human reflex — once the car went on to the track it was very difficult.” Grosjean said braking would not have stopped him sliding in front of other cars. “I tried to stay on throttle to spin it and at least not face a lot of people. It didn’t work. “I don’t think there was anything different than that for me to do. I guess it’s quite a normal human reflex if you look at Rosberg in Malaysia in 2016 and Schumacher in Abu Dhabi in 2010. “Honestly, if I had braked I think I would have stayed in the middle and it would have been the same thing.” Grosjean’s spin and crash were being investigated by the race stewards after the race. Hulkenberg said, “I got crashed into Romain spun, came back into the track. “I couldn’t go anywhere, couldn’t avoid him and he took the back end of my car. There was nothing I could do. He didn’t look great in that scenario. “Generally, he likes spinning, but on the first lap is not a good time to do it with everyone there. “He has to look at it and do some work on himself. I don’t know how many times he spins on a race weekend. If he does it on his own, it’s ok, but if he kicks others out of the race, it’s not.”