Formula 1: Mark Webber rages at Romain Grosjean

Lotus driver Grosjean has been involved in numerous first-lap incidents this season, and was banned for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza after taking out Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso and Sergio Perez at the first corner in Belgium.

He was once again at fault here as he hit the right-rear corner of Webber’s Red Bull as the field funnelled through turn two. The impact sent the Australian spinning on to the infield and destroyed his chances as team-mate Sebastian Vettel took a dominant victory to capitalise on Alonso’s first-corner exit. Webber eventually recovered to finish ninth and pick up two points, but his failure to score big has hurt his title aspirations, leaving him 60 points behind Alonso, and 56 adrift of Vettel, with a maximum of 125 available.

Webber did not hold back as he spoke to reporters in the immediate aftermath of the race, suggesting Grosjean should receive another ban.

He said: “I haven’t seen what happened at the start, but the guys confirmed it was the first-lap nutcase again, Grosjean.

“The rest of us are trying to fight for some decent results each weekend, but he’s trying to get to the third corner as fast as he can at every race. It makes it frustrating because a few big guys obviously suffered from that today. Maybe he needs another holiday. It was completely his fault.”