Red Bull driver
Mark Webber has pulled no punches in his criticism of Romain Grosjean, after the Lotus ruined his race by running into him through the first corner of the 2012 Grand Prix of Japan at Suzuka.
"I haven't seen what happened at the start but the guys confirmed it was the first-lap nutcase again - Grosjean," said Webber when interviewed after the race by
Sky Sports F1's Natalie Pinkham.
Grosjean ran into the back of the
Red Bull and tipped it into a half spin, as the field scattered to avoid running into the stricken
Ferrari of
Fernando Alonso who had spun off on the outside of the right hander. Although Webber was able to get back underway, it left him at the back of the field from where he could only manage to recover to ninth place by the chequered flag.
"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," Webber told
Sky Sports F1. "It makes it frustrating because a few big guys obviously suffered from that today. Maybe he needs another holiday."
By holiday, Webber is suggesting that Grosjean needs another ban, to add to the one-race exclusion he received after causing a first-corner collision at Spa that took out several of the championship contenders.
But in response, Grosjean insisted that ever since the incident at Spa, he'd been driving a lot more carefully and rejected the criticism levelled at him.
"After the ban, I'm very careful at the start," he insisted. "I kept my line and was trying to avoid contact with Sergio Perez. I didn't see the delta speed with Mark. I was just trying to avoid any contact - it didn't work.
"It was a stupid clash," he added.
That did little to pacify Webber, however: "How many mistakes can you make, how many times can you make the same error with first lap incidents?" the Australian fumed. "He needs to have a look at himself, obviously ... It's quite embarrassing at this level for him."
Red Bull team boss Christian Horner backed up Webber's remarks, referring to Grosjean's "crazy move" through the first turn as just the latest of seven serious incidents from Grosjean in 14 race appearances in 2012.