Lotus driver Romain Grosjean has escaped a grid penalty following his car's failure of a post-qualifying front-floor deflection test.
Grosjean's car was measured to have deflected more than five millimetres, but the race stewards accepted the team's explanation that it occurred because of an impact in Q2.
"Based on the telemetry it was apparent the car suffered an impact during Q2 resulting in a vertical acceleration ranging from -7.3g to +11.1g," read the stewards' ruling.
"Video evidence verified the car bottomed at turn 11 consistent with the telemetry. It is considered reasonable this impact caused a fracture in the floor stay of car 08. It was confirmed by physical examination the floor stay on car 08 was identical to that on car 07, which was intact.
"It is the conclusion of the stewards the failure of this part was due to the impact in Q2 and subsequently caused the car to fail to meet the requirements of article 3.17.5."
It means that Grosjean will start third for Sunday's Hungarian Grand Prix.
Matt Domm
