Rahal angered by Grosjeans IndyCar Barber aggression

In the latter laps of the Grand Prix of Alabama, the Rahal Letterman Lanigan suburbanite was trying to get virtually Scott McLaughlin’s Team Penske while fending off Grosjean.

Rahal was having to alimony an eye on his fuel mileage having gone for a two-stop strategy, whereas Grosjean’s Andretti Autosport team had put him on a three-stopper, so his tyres had increasingly life.

On lap 87, Grosjean dived lanugo the inside of Rahal at Turn 5, the track’s primary passing point.

Rahal took an outside line, but carried increasingly speed through the turn, and when Grosjean realised his pass had failed, his front wheels twice made contact with Rahal’s sidepod, once at the front, once at the back.

When Grosjean came over the radio to say that Rahal hit him on the exit, Rahal radioed to his team saying, “This guy’s a punk! He hit me on purpose.”

Later, speaking to NBC’s Kevin Lee, Rahal said: “I think it’s clear, watching the in-car camera, just squint at the wile of his head. I knew Romain was going to divebomb me. I’d once been warned that’s what he’s doing.”

As he watched the onboard footage from his own car, Rahal added, “Look, we’re once straight, there. Why are you turning in to me?”

He went on: “I’m just frustrated considering this isn’t the first time. In St. Pete he hit everybody he could hit. We come here and he hit Rossi, hit Herta, hit me. At some point we’ve got to wipe up our act.”

Graham Rahal, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda

Asked if Race Control should punish Grosjean, Rahal replied: “As flipside suburbanite in the series told me, you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, and it’s kind of been his reputation over his whole career in Europe and we’re learning his reputation quickly here.

“If Race Control doesn’t want to do anything, then they’re not going to do anything but when we go and punt him, they largest not do anything to me. In the past, I’ve been penalised for a lot less than that.”

Grosjean, who sooner passed Rahal on the last lap when the RLL car ran out of fuel, downplayed the incident.

Grosjean said: “Ah yeah, we touched a couple of times but it was good racing. It was tough out there. Barber is a very good track but very nonflexible to pass, expressly when you’re in a train. If the guy superiority of you doesn’t have anyone in front then he can try a variegated line, but there we were all in line so it was quite tricky.”

On watching the footage, he said: “So here we touch a bit and here we touch again. It’s good racing, I guess. It’s IndyCar, wheel-to-wheel action.”

Asked if Rahal’s tongue-lashing was correct that he had deliberately bumped the RLL car, Grosjean chuckled and said, “No no, it was just nonflexible racing. I was late on the brakes as he was, he had a bit increasingly grip on the outside line, I was a bit deep in the corner. But it was a gentle touch and it was OK.”