Grosjean feared he’d broken finger before scoring first points of 2020

Romain Grosjean will leave Germany with two points - his first of 2020 - tucked into his back pocket, which is a decent return considering he thought he’d broken his finger in unusual circumstances on lap two of the race…

The Frenchman hadn’t finished in the points since, ironically, the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim last year, but managed to get his Haas home in P9 after making an ambitious one-stop strategy work.

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Grosjean, who was third the last time F1 vistited the Nurburgring in 2013, endured a terrible start from P16 on the grid, falling to dead last, at which point he then was hit by gravel kicked up by Kimi Raikkonen’s Alfa Romeo.

“I was understeering and Kimi went in the gravel and it hit me in the wrong place and was quite painful initially," he said. "I thought it was broken initially, there’s a big bruise on the knuckle. But for a few laps I was driving with a straight index finger.”

But a bruised finger was never going to damped Grosjean’s spirits on a day when he finally got off the mark this season, moving one point ahead of team mate Kevin Magnussen in the process.

The Frenchman even ran as high as seventh at one point as the various strategies played out, and even though he looked vulnerable as the only runner on hard tyres for the late safety car restart, he was able to bring it home well inside the top 10.

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“I’m very happy for everyone [in the team] and for all the strong work we’ve done recently,” Grosjean said. “Since Silverstone race 1 we’ve been really nailing the car and getting better and the stars aligned today.

“When the Safety Car came that was not really good news for me, but we managed to get some temperature back in [to the tyres] and hold onto P9. So that is good news.”