Grosjean thinks pitlane incident cost P3

Romain Grosjean believes he could have been third on the grid for the Canadian Grand Prix, and was left lamenting a bizarre pitlane incident with Lotus teammate Pastor Maldonado.

Grosjean and Maldonado ran side-by-side down the pitlane in the dying moments of Q3 after both Lotus drivers were ordered to leave their garages at the same time.

Maldonado emerged ahead and ran in front of Grosjean – who was told to slow down to create a gap to his teammate – during their final flying laps.

The Frenchman qualified fifth, two tenths behind third place, but he reckons P3 would have been possible had he completed a better warm-up lap.

"It's just a bit of a misunderstanding with the timing of going out of the garage, but nothing too bad," said Grosjean of the incident with Maldonado.

"With perfect preparation, perfect slipstream we could easy get a tenth on the back straight and I could have probably been P3.

"But if everything had been perfect third would have been possible. But coming here, fifth and sixth is a very good result."

He added: "I didn't like the preparation of the last lap. I thought I could take the slipstream from Pastor but I was too far [away].

"It was not the ideal way to start the last lap in Q3, but I think the track was a bit slower in the end so I don't think there was much more we could have done."

Grosjean remains confident that he can challenge Williams driver Valtteri Bottas, starting from fourth, in the race after showing strong pace on Friday.

"It felt pretty good yesterday," he said of his long-run pace. "We did one in the morning and the car felt great.

"It was better than the Williams, and hopefully it's going to be better in the race."