Romain Grosjean says he accepts the FIA decision to ban him from the Italian GP, after he was deemed to have caused the multi-car first corner crash at Spa.
Grosjean is the first driver to be banned since 1994, a year that saw both Eddie Irvine and Mika Hakkinen punished for triggering incidents, and Michael Schumacher for ignoring a black flag.
“When your life is all about racing, not being allowed to attend an event is probably one of the worst experiences you can go through,” said the Frenchman.
“That said, I do respect the verdict of the Stewards. I got a good start – despite being disturbed by Pastor’s early launch, which I think was the case for everybody at the front – and was heading into the first corner when the rear of my car made contact with the front of Lewis’s.
“I honestly thought I was ahead of him, and there was enough room for both cars. I didn’t deliberately try to squeeze him or anything like that. This first corner situation obviously isn’t what anyone would want to happen, and thankfully no-one was hurt in the incident. I wish to apologise to the drivers who were involved, and to their fans. I can only say that today is part of a process that will make me a better driver.”
“It’s been a tough day for the team but we fully respect the Stewards’ decision,” said team boss Eric Boullier. “Romain won’t be driving at Monza but he still has our full support. We’ll announce the name of his replacement a bit later in the week.”
Meanwhile regarding Raikkonen’s third place, he added: “Unfortunately we didn’t have the pace for Kimi to challenge Jenson or Sebastian. We had to look closely at the strategy during the race to see if we should switch to one stop, but in the end a podium finish still brings us some good points.
“Of course, everyone talks about ‘the win’, and this is something we all want. We were not fast enough for it today, so we all need to keep working hard for this goal.”
Adam Cooper F1 
If he thought he was ahead of Hamilton then he’s got a serious problem judging the length of his car. His rear wheel was behind Hamilton’s front – he wasn’t even close to being ahead.
Youd think after causing so many incidents off the start line this year he – or someone from the team – would have the common sense to calm down a bit and stop driving into people.
Maybe this will teach him, otherwise it’ll be a brief return to F1 for him.
Shame really, last time around he simply was not quick enough. Now he has the speed – on the rare occasion he can avoid running into other people on the first lap.