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Romain Grosjean’s embattled Styrian Grand Prix weekend continues as the Haas Formula 1 driver has been ordered to start the race from the pitlane from a parc ferme breach.
Grosjean failed to set a time in qualifying after a water pump problem emerged on his outlap in Q1.
As he officially took part in the session his car was under parc ferme conditions and work on it needed to stop three and a half hours after qualifying ended.
That should have been 20:16 local time, but Haas continued to work on the car until 23:20.
The Styrian GP stewards noted that such a breach can result in disqualification from the event but determined this offence was consistent with those mandating a pitlane start.
They accepted there were “clearly mitigating circumstances” as Haas would not have been able to run the car in the race without breaching the parc ferme rules to address the issue.
However, it has been stressed that this decision should not serve as precedent for future parc ferme breaches.
Grosjean was only due to start 19th anyway having inherited one place on the grid thanks to a gearbox change and five-place penalty for Alfa Romeo driver Antonio Giovinazzi.
It continues a challenging start to the season for Haas, which suffered a double-retirement at the Red Bull Ring last week.
Grosjean was also slowest of those to set a lap time in Friday’s second practice session.
