Blue flag blunder leaves Grosjean three points off F1 race ban

Romain Grosjean is just three penalty points away from receiving a Formula 1 race ban after being penalised for ignoring blue flags during the Singapore Grand Prix.

The Haas driver was hit by a five-second time penalty and two penalty points on his licence for failing to adhere to repeated blue flag warnings when race leaders Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen tried to make their way through backmarkers in Singapore. 

Grosjean continued to race against Williams driver Sergey Sirotkin, while Hamilton became bunched up behind the pair and lost a chunk of time as he defended from Verstappen before the Briton ultimately got past and went on to claim victory.

F1 race director Charlie Whiting slammed Grosjean for committing what he described as “one of the worst cases” of ignoring blue flags he had seen.

"I think Romain just completely forgot the golden rule of blue flags," Whiting said. "And that is if you are in a battle you've got to forget about your own battle and move over.

"I've drilled that into them many times, and I think he completely forgot about it. He was so intent on his battle with Sirotkin that he just - the light panels were flashing with his race number on them - and Lewis was much much faster.

“It was probably one of the worst cases of ignoring blue flags that I've seen for a long time."

The Frenchman, who later apologised for his mistake, has now racked up nine penalty points on his license and will face a one-race ban if he accumulates 12 points before any are wiped off his license following next month’s Mexican Grand Prix.

"I'm sorry if I blocked anyone, it was not my intention," Grosjean explained. "I believe I did my best. I was fighting with Sergey, who was playing a little bit of go-kart racing out there.

"I couldn't really slow down. Pierre [Gasly] was on my gearbox and Sergey was on my front wing. So I passed him, then as soon as I passed him, I let Lewis by."