Romain Grosjean felt it was possible to secure a seventh-place finish in the Canadian Grand Prix if it wasn't for the power unit failure in the opening minutes of qualifying.
Having been left to start at the back of the grid, Grosjean started the race on the Ultrasoft tyre with the hope of being able to move through the field and stay out longer than his rivals in front of him.
For a period of the race, the Frenchman did run in seventh place once the others had made their pit stops, making his own stop on lap 48 of the eventual 68, stopping later than originally planned to try something different with their strategy.
Despite the unfortunate circumstance of having to make his way through the field, made even more difficult with always having to move over for blue flags. Grosjean was happy with his efforts and the performance of his VF-18 throughout the race.
"We didn’t really know quite how long we could go," said Grosjean. "We had been planning to go long, but not as long as that. The tyres were holding quite nicely. There was only a bit of front degradation.
"I was happy with the pace. I was easily managing keeping up with the Renault in front and the Force India behind. If qualifying had been as I was expecting with a P7, it would’ve been a P7, for sure.
"Anyway, we tried to come back, but our strategy didn’t quite work. When we came out of the pit we had a lot of blue flags and so on. I couldn’t really come back through the field.
"We did our best. The car is fast and I enjoyed driving it.”
