Romain Grosjean refused to blame the bumps at Circuit of The Americas for his crash in FP2 at the United States Grand Prix, saying they add character to the track.

The Frenchman lost control in the high-speed first sector and overcorrected a snap of oversteer, sliding sideways into the barrier and damaging the front end of his car. The session was red flagged and Grosjean missed out on plenty of running as a result, and he says he is unsure what the cause was.

“We’re trying to analyze it,” Grosjean said. “I went through the first lap and it was a good lap and the car was well balanced. Then I obviously pushed on that second lap and I got to Turn 5 I believe and the rear end just went in front of the front end. There’s no real explanation, the setup was not the same from the morning so is there something there? Most likely, because the weren’t that many explanations.

“So it’s a bit frustrating that we lost FP2. I wish the car had come back more to the left-hand side on order to avoid hitting the barriers but we will take what Kevin (Magnussen) has done in the afternoon and revert to the setup from the morning when the car felt really good.”

When it was suggested that the bumps could be to blame for his crash, Grosjean dismissed that theory despite some drivers — most forcefully Sergio Perez — being critical of how challenging they have made COTA.

“The previous lap was absolutely fine and that lap was pretty much the same thing so… nah. The bumps are there, I think it’s actually quite cool. Maybe Turn 1 is a bit too bumpy in the braking zone and it’s slightly painful on the back. The rest of the lap I think it gave some character to the circuit and it’s all right.”

Grosjean is confident the car will be quickly repaired ahead of Saturday’s running.

“I hope there wasn’t that much damage besides the front wing and track rod. The boys are doing the best they can. We changed the setup from FP1 to FP2 and in hindsight maybe that setup was less good in there. But honestly we are trying to understand how it happened, because it’s not something that you can control.”