Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne was slapped with a 5-second penalty after the United States Grand Prix for his collision with Lotus’ Romain Grosjean in the closing stages of the race.

Vergne finished the race in P9, but after being handed a 5-second penalty, he was classified as P10.

Vergne crashed into Grosjean towards the end of the race with somewhat of a late dive down the inside into T1. Both did, in fact, make the corner, but Verge carried more speed and ran wide which resulted him in colliding with Grosjean’s Lotus. Grosjean was pushed wide and conceded another place to his team mate, who moves up to P9 after Vergne’s penalty.

“Jean-Eric came into Turn 1 and bumped into me, broke my front wing and my floor and I couldn’t really recover,” said Grosjean

“I was on the radio saying ‘guys, that’s not fair, he [should] get something’, because I could have got P8.

“I may not get my points and position but it’s good that Pastor scored and we were finally able to fight with Ferrari and Toro Rosso.”

Vergne who is fighting for a 2015 seat at Toro Rosso felt that he needed to do something and he could not just wait behind his fellow countryman.

“I had to do something, I was not going to stay sitting behind waiting,” Vergne explained.

“I saw the opportunity and I went for it. He closed the door but it was too late.”

Photo credit: Scuderia Toro Rosso F1