Grosjean, Palmer continue war of words over Sochi crash

Jolyon Palmer says Romain Grosjean is demonstrating 'strange logic' in blaming the Briton for the collision that saw their Russian Grand Prix come to an abrupt halt on the opening lap.

The pair came to blows heading into the tight second corner of the Sochi circuit after Grosjean attempted a pass on the inside of Palmer, only for the Renault to come across on the unsighted Haas. Tipping Palmer into a spin, with the Renault coming back across on the exit and collecting Grosjean, both would be eliminated on the spot.

While the crash was deemed a racing incident from the Stewards, both drivers have continued to give opposing opinion on the crash as they each feel the other party was at fault.

"He had some strange logic," Palmer said. "But it's OK, it's racing. I think when you have an incident it's quite often that people don't agree with what happened, for me it was quite clear what happened, especially watching the replay.

"I'm happy that it's a racing incident and I'm happy to accept that it's a racing incident, I can understand from his point of view that he was on the inside, from my point of view I had to turn in because I had a car on the outside, and I think he seems to think something else."

When asked what he meant by 'strange logic', Palmer replied: "Roughly that some rules apply to him and not for other drivers, that sort of thing."

Grosjean on the other hand, felt as though Palmer deserved to be penalised for the incident and was left confused when no action was taken by the Stewards.

The Frenchman was left unimpressed by the way Palmer handled his spin, comparing the incident to the one Nico Rosberg had in Malaysia.

"I tried to turn right but it was quite clear, he stayed on throttle," said Grosjean.

"The same thing happened with Rosberg in Malaysia last year when he spun into Turn 1 but was going flat out but you obviously don't want to lose time, but when you are coming and there's a car is facing you and you don't know the momentum of the car which is facing you makes it a bit more dangerous.

"I was expecting maybe him to get something [penalty]. The rules say you need to keep a car width when there's a car next to you.

"I did the corner very nicely and even got on the orange sausage kerb. Then he spun and that is one thing I wanted them to look at. If there is a car spinning at Turn 1, I know it is not easy but the drivers should almost go on the brakes, a car should go on the brakes. The thing which happened with Jolyon, is that his car spun and he stayed flat out. His car came back and that's why we had the big hit."

Despite the matter being sorted after the race, Grosjean did have to take some of the blame due to his poor qualifying position, taking aim at the quality of some of the lower ranked drivers.

"It is my fault, I qualified P20 and when you are at the back and you always get with drivers that are a bit... it wouldn't happen in the front three or four rows anyway."