D'Ambrosio replaces suspended Grosjean for Italian Grand Prix

PARIS (AFP) –

Belgian driver Jerome d’Ambrosio, pictured in 2011, was called up on Tuesday to drive in place of the suspended Romain Grosjean for the Lotus team in Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix.

Belgian driver Jerome d’Ambrosio was called up on Tuesday to drive in place of the suspended Romain Grosjean for the Lotus team in Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix.

D’Ambrosio is Lotus’s reserve driver and gets his chance after Grosjean was penalised for his reckless start in last Sunday’s Belgian race which provoked an accident that saw Lewis Hamilton and series leader Fernando Alonso‘s races end at the first corner.

D’Ambrosio, 26, had one season in Formula One as a first choice driver with the minnows Virgin (Marussia) in 2011 in which he failed to register a point.

Grosjean’s team-mate, former world champion Kimi Raikkonen, refused to comment on his French colleague’s mishap when he toured the team’s engine supplier Renault on Tuesday.

“It doesn’t interest me to talk about that,” he told AFP.

“It is to him that these questions should be addressed. I do what concerns me, I take care of my own stuff.

“He (Grosjean is a super team-mate). We talk to each other, we are both aiming for the best possible results.

“We stick together at work but we don’t socialise outside of the pitlane,” added Raikkonen, who finished third in the Belgian Grand Prix.

Grosjean has had a largely successful season, aside from the misjudgement last Sunday, recording three podium finishes in 12 races and stands eighth in the drivers championship on 76 points.