F1: Hydraulic leak cost top-five shot, Grosjean says

Romain Grosjean said a hydraulic leak ruled him of final Austrian Grand Prix qualifying and cost him a chance to put the Lotus Formula 1 team in the top five.

The problem struck on Grosjean's out-lap in Q3 and left him in 10th place, although he will gain one position due to an engine penalty for Red Bull's Daniil Kvyat. Grosjean believes the fifth place achieved by Nico Hulkenberg's Force India could have been his had he run in Q3.

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"It was a hydraulic leak, I think," he explained. "It was looking great until our small problem."

"We've been competing against Force India all weekend long so it would have been nice to be where Nico is.

Grosjean reckons several cars ahead can easily be picked off in the race.

"I think the Sauber is probably less quick in the race, the Toro Rosso as well," he said. "Then normally Force India is a little bit less good in the race as well."

His teammate Pastor Maldonado ended up 11th due to a mistake at the end of Q2.

"I just lost the car in the second-last corner," he said. "It was quite humid there and maybe I was a little bit too fast and off-line.

"Q3 would've been very easy. I was seven tenths ahead of my best time. But we can recover tomorrow. We are in a good place."

AERODYNAMIC PROBLEM IN CANADA

Lotus filled row three of the grid for the preceding race in Canada but its pace was not as strong in the grand prix. Maldonado said this was due to an aerodynamic problem that the team has been trying to work around.

"We had a bit of an aerodynamic problem in Canada, especially on my car," he said. "There was a big loss somewhere. It was even more intense in the race because the tire grip was dropping a lot.

"We've been trying to find it, but we didn't. At this track there's still something that is not completely good, but it's working better. Here I think we can be quite competitive tomorrow."

Originally on Autosport.com