Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Romain Grosjean


Romain Grosjean (born April 17, 1986 in Geneva, Switzerland) is a racing driver. He races under the French flag in the GP2 series although he holds dual nationality from France and Switzerland. He was the 2007 Formula Three Euroseries drivers' champion and the inaugural GP2 Asia Series champion.

Early racing career
Grosjean won all ten rounds of the 2003 Swiss Formula Renault 1.6 championship and moved to the French Formula Renault championship for 2004.
He was seventh in that first season with one win and champion in 2005 with ten victories. Grosjean also appeared in the Formula Renault Eurocup and finished on the podium twice in Valencia.
With his results and potential in the Formula Renault series, Romain joined the Renault Driver Development for the continuation of is career.




Formula Three
Grosjean made his F3 debut at the demanding Macau Guia circuit, standing in for Loic Duval at Signature-Plus. He qualified 19th and raced to ninth, beating team-mates Fabio Carbone and Guillaume Moreau.
He did a full season in the Formula Three Euroseries in 2006 but had a tough year, taking only one podium finish and ending the year 13th. But in a one-off appearance in the British Formula Three Championship he started on pole position for both races at Pau, won both and set fastest lap in each.
He stayed in the F3 Euroseries for 2007 but stepped up to ASM Formule 3, for which Jamie Green, Lewis Hamilton, and Paul di Resta won the previous three titles. Sébastien Buemi led the championship in the early stages but Grosjean moved ahead with a victory in the ninth race of the season at Mugello. He maintained a lead in the standings from that point onwards and won the title at the final round of the year with one race in hand.
Grosjean took pole position for the prestigious Masters of F3 race at Zolder but finished 14th after stalling at the start.

GP2 Series



Grosjean drove for ART in the inaugural GP2 Asia Series season alongside Stephen Jelley, winning both races of the first round of the championship. He went on to win the championship with four race victories and sixty-one points overall.
He stayed with ART Grand Prix team for the 2008 GP2 Series season. His team-mates were Luca Filippi and Sakon Yamamoto
In the first round at the Circuit de Catalunya Grosjean started 11th after engine problems in qualifying. He rose through the field to finish fifth in the feature race, giving him fourth on the grid for the shorter sprint race. After a good start Grosjean was up to second and then passed Kobayashi for the lead. But Grosjean made a mistake on a late rolling restart and Kobayashi tried to pass him again for the lead. Grosjean moved across on Kobayashi to keep the position but the stewards decided his defensive move was illegal and gave him a drive-through penalty dropping him to 13th at the end of the race. Victory in the sprint race at Istanbul, the fourth round of the season, moved Grosjean into second place in the championship. Despite dropping back from this position, he finished the season fourth and achieved the distinction of being the highest-placed rookie in the championship.
2008 Formula Three Euroseries season champion Nicolas Hülkenberg joined Pastor Maldonado at ART for 2009, forcing Grosjean out of the team. Nonetheless, Renault placed him at 2008 team champions Campos Grand Prix for 2009, now known as Barwa Addax

Formula One

Grosjean was confirmed as Renault's test driver for 2008, replacing Nelson Piquet, Jr. who graduated to a race seat. He drove a Formula One car for the first time at the UK round of the 2008 World Series by Renault weekend at Silverstone on June 7 and June 8, 2008 where he gave a number of demonstrations of the previous year's R27 car. He initially continued in the test driver role at Renault for 2009, but will take over Piquet's seat from the European Grand Prix onwards.

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