Grosjean has “overstayed his welcome” in IndyCar says Rahal after contact

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Graham Rahal lambasted Romain Grosjean after the pair collided while disputing seventh place in yesterday’s Grand Prix of Alabama.

Grosjean made contact with Rahal twice in a single incident at Charlotte’s Web as the pair fought for position. The ex-Formula 1 driver led his rival to the chequered flag but Rahal was unhappy with his combative moves.

“I think it’s clear,” said Rahal. “Just watch the in-car camera and look at the angle of his head. I knew Romain was going to dive-bomb me because I had already been warned that’s what he’s doing. we were already straight there, why are you turning into me?

“I’m just frustrated because this isn’t the first time. At St Pete he hit everybody he could hit. We come here, he hit Rossi, he hit Herta, he hit me. At some point, we’ve got to clean up our act.”

Race control took no action over the incident between the pair. Rahal said he has been given penalties for less severe incident in the past.

“I won’t name, but as another driver in the series told me, you can’t teach an old dog new tricks and it’s kind of been his reputation over his whole career in Europe and we’re learning his reputation quickly here.

“So to me, if race control doesn’t want to do anything then they’re not going to do anything. But when we go and punt him they better not do anything to me, which in the past I’ve been penalised for a lot less than that.”

Rahal said he isn’t the only driver who is unimpressed with Grosjean. “I think the drivers need to get together, all of us, because I’m not the only one who’s got a problem. I think it’s quite a significant amount of drivers who’ve had run-ins with this guy.”

“When the roles are reversed officiating better be consistent, that’s all I’ll say,” he added, “because it’s going to be reversed at some stage and I’m not going to play nice. This guy’s overstayed his welcome.”

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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27 comments on “Grosjean has “overstayed his welcome” in IndyCar says Rahal after contact”

  1. Shots fired shots fired!

  2. That did look quite bad, yeah. Not sure if there was something that went on before this? Not too sure Graham will feel the same after cooling down though.

    1. Well, after all he said here I don’t think this is just a heat of a moment. He’d probably say less if asked the next morning (just guessing of course), but he’d probably think the same. Too much thought and effort for sour grapes.

  3. yeah too bad the on-board cam was not shown

  4. That was actually pretty blatant – I’m surprised anyone would get away with that kind of driving

  5. There’s that buzz Rossi wanted.

  6. Rahal may be PO’d, but that’s just hard racing. It will be interesting to see how this evolves over the next races.

    1. I luv chicken
      2nd May 2022, 15:16

      Oh Graham! You’ve been such a disappointment over all these years. Seems that being comfortable is so much more important to you than showing you have the drive to show some results. Time to think about hanging up that steering wheel.

  7. Maybe Graham Could drive a little better and win a little more if he would take the silver spoon out of his mouth and stop carrying the extra weight of his self importance in the car with him. Shhhhh Graham, we know your dad was always a whiner and that’s where you learned it, but it’s time to break tradition and man up.

  8. Jason Lashua
    2nd May 2022, 15:56

    I think Grosjean thought Rahal came a bit close on the inside to squeeze him off knowing Grojsean was coming up the inside and certainly looks like that’s what happened – Grosjean certainly wanted to try and squeeze him wide and keep his run and still had room to do so…but *bump* … and the second hit? idk… maybe it was a revenge-tap… but certainly making a mountain out of a molehill here… this is not anywhere close to “First lap nutcase” grosean of the past… so this sounds like silly drama to me.

    1. In American motorsport all is fair in love and war, the NASCAR guys have punch ups.

  9. Watched the Graham Rahal interview, he was right to mention the Grosjean reputation in Europe ! Once a Crash Magnet always a Crash Magnet . Will never change !

  10. Bit rich coming from a guy who is ONLY in the sport due to his last name and not talent!

    1. Fred Fedurch
      2nd May 2022, 22:44

      His wife has bigger stones than him.

    2. Last names count carry a lot of weight in F1 also ,l can’t see much talent attached to them.

  11. Replace the headline with yankee doodle yankee can’t handle being beaten by an F1 racer…

    1. @skipgamer What, like we didn’t complain about him back when he was in F1? Just like Graham said, this isn’t anything new.

  12. Graham always has someone to blame…

  13. Rustfrated
    3rd May 2022, 0:56

    Calm down Graham.

  14. It does a bit untidy from Grosjean but there’s seems to be lots of similar incidents in the race. Just a racing incident I would say.

    As an F1 fan this looks like a great circuit. Looks really fast and it’s quite wide.

    1. Rick Worth
      3rd May 2022, 9:57

      Yeah, I don’t actually understand how they think an experienced driver would bash his front wheels against the chassis of another car. It seems potentially suicidal as they aren’t the strongest part of a race car. He just looked momentarily out of control and over-corrected to me. But what do I know!

      Graham seems a decent bloke, but does complain an awful lot.

  15. He has always been a blistering idiot. A danger to himself and others.

  16. No no, you keep Grosjean! Hopefully you’ll take Sainz jr soon though I doubt that, too much kaching.

  17. RocketPunches
    3rd May 2022, 14:56

    Rahal has the memory of a goldfish apparently, or perhaps the spine of a jellyfish, because I don’t remember any of these guys up in arms when Sato potentially cost Grosjean the race at the Indy road course. If this rates, then using up push to pass to defend from being put a lap down while cruising around seconds off the pace and with no one to fight because Grosjean didn’t give him room when trying to pass him and get on with winning the GP should have registered to them then.

    The way Rahal is running his mouth you’d think Grosjean was the only one who did anything questionable over the last year. Maybe Graham should go hang out with Jimmy at the back of the field where we can forget about him.

  18. Rahal needs reminding that Grosjean’s ‘career in Europe’ was almost a decade in a global championship (with races in the U.S. no less!) at the pinnacle of motorsport. Meanwhile ‘over here’, Rahal contests a domestic spec-series. Hardly an equivalency.

  19. Pablo Castano
    3rd May 2022, 16:34

    “You can’t teach and old dog new tricks..” sounds like and Andretti thing to say, just a guess.

  20. Classic US racing. If you hit me you are a horrible person and should be banned from racing. If I hit you it was just racing and justified.

Comments are closed.