What was he thinking? That's the question most asked after Romain Grosjean wiped out Nico Hulkenberg and Pierre Gasly - not to mention his own Haas - on the first lap of the Spanish Grand Prix.

It wasn't so much that he lost it in the first place; it happens. But Grosjean's reaction, keeping the rears lit and harpooning across the track in a cloud of tyre smoke rather than getting on the brakes, was baffling. That crash, within the wider context of Grosjean's 2018 season so far, reveals a lot about the most infuriating driver on the Formula 1 grid.

It's too easy, and completely wrong, simply to write off Grosjean as a talentless idiot, an out-of-his-depth crash-magnet. This is a driver with 10 podium finishes to his name, who has led a grand prix on merit and scored points in 48 races. That didn't happen by good luck, but by the same token you can't put his mishaps down to bad luck.

About Edd Straw

Edd Straw is a former Editor and Editor-in-Chief of Autosport, who is now Motorsport Network’s Digital Content Manager.

Originally from Guernsey in the Channel Islands, he joined Autosport in 2002 having graduated from Warwick University. He went on to cover a wide range of categories from club motorsport to the World Touring Car Championship and Le Mans to Formula 3 before switching to F1 full-time at the 2008 French Grand Prix. He then became Autosport Magazine Editor in November 2014.

After becoming Editor-in-Chief of Autosport in June 2016, he took up his current wider Motorsport Network role in October the following year and continues to contribute as a writer, F1 correspondent and as host of The Autosport Podcast.

In his spare time, he was formerly a club racer whose abilities did not match his enthusiasm in a variety of categories ranging from Stock Hatch to the European Ferrari Challenge.