An emotional Romain Grosjean shed tears behind his visor on Friday after driving a Formula 1 car for the first time since a 2020 fireball crash ended his grand prix career.
The 39-year-old French driver reunited with the Haas team at Italy's Mugello circuit and got the send-off he missed all those years ago after his crash in Bahrain.
Grosjean missed the last two races of his final season after the fiery opening-lap crash at Sakhir. The driver suffered burns to his hands as he clambered out of the flame-engulfed car in an escape that has gone down in F1 legend.
Grosjean said afterwards: "They made me cry at the end of the day. I kept my visor down but for my last in-lap everyone from Ferrari, Red Bull, Pirelli and of course Haas F1 team was here, clapping and giving me like an ovation. That's something I was expecting in Abu Dhabi 2020 but I think it was even better today."
Members of his original crew, including current team principal Ayao Komatsu who was previously a race engineer, were in attendance as he drove a 2023 car in a session that also featured other teams testing Pirelli tyres.
Grosjean reported: "It was a wet day but as we say, a rainy wedding is a happy wedding. So it was a rainy day, a happy day. Fantastic. I felt a bit rusty at first and then everything came back, even got to do a standing start. And guess what? My last standing start was Bahrain 2020 so this time it turned out way better."
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