Monaco Grand Prix 2015: Winners and Losers from Monte Carlo Race

Mark Thompson/Getty Images Verstappen threw away a brilliant performance late in the race.

In his first Monaco Grand Prix, Max Verstappen wasthisclose to being a big winner. Instead, thanks to a late-race crash with Grosjean, he ends up in the loser column.

For a while on Sunday afternoon, the 17-year-old Dutchman was putting on a passing clinic at the Circuit de Monaco, where it is notoriously difficult to overtake. Particularly brilliant was his manoeuvre of tucking in behind Vettel after being lapped by the Ferrari and then following the German through as he lapped other cars.

After passing Sainz and Valtteri Bottas, television viewers heard Grosjean's race engineer say to watch out for Verstappen's Toro Rosso behind Vettel. When Verstappen tried to follow Vettel through on the entrance to the hairpin, Grosjean cut him off.

A few laps later, on the run to the first corner, Verstappen hit the back of Grosjean's car and went flying into the crash barrier. Thankfully, neither driver was hurtGrosjean even finished the race.

Afterwards, Verstappen accused Grosjean of causing the accident. Per ESPN F1's Nate Saunders, he said:

The lap before I braked on exactly the same spot but clearly in the lap we crashed, he braked 10 to 15 metres earlier, and if you are that close to each other and going to 80 from 290 there is no room and you can't go anywhere. I really tried to avoid it and maybe it looked like an overtake but he braked way earlier than the lap before, normally the whole race you are braking within five metres.

Unsurprisingly, Grosjean did not agree. In a team press release, he said, "Unfortunately, I think he forgot the braking point. The move was a bit optimistic, fortunately neither of us were hurt but it cost us a point today. He is learning, of course I have made some mistakes in the past so I can understand."

The stewards agreed with Grosjean, issuing Verstappen a five-place grid penalty at the next race and two penalty points on his Super Licence.

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Source: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2475251-monaco-grand-prix-2015-winners-and-losers-from-monte-carlo-race