Romain Grosjean was dismayed after seeing a decent chance for points ended on Lap 1 at the Russian GP.
Starting eighth, the Frenchman was taken out at Turn 4 as Antonio Giovinazzi was caught in between his Haas and Daniel Ricciardo’s Renault.
“I didn’t see much,” Grosjean commented. “I was up in the air and then I was in the wall so I haven’t seen any detailed footage.
“I’m really disappointed. We worked really hard this weekend and we had a good car. There is a huge amount of pressure on us to go to Q3 when we have one chance, now we don’t know if it will come back again or not.
“I just want to punch walls as we had a rough patch. For once we had a very competitive car and we were going to go for points today. Obviously, we got ruined by Turn 4.”
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For this weekend, Haas has reintroduced elements from the Australia-spec car which again proved faster than their most upto date car driven by Kevin Magnussen.
But given how competitive the midfield is, Grosjean knows opportunities like Sochi are going to be rare in the final five races.
“I’m afraid not, here we were competitive from the beginning of the weekend. It came as a bit of a surprise but we were happy,” he admitted on whether the American squad could maintain their progress.
“Maybe Japan could be good but we are expecting a tough end of the season. I think our recent form is showing more than this one-off.
“It’s hard to digest as I felt this was the weekend we could score. To be taken out on the first lap is very hard.”
As for Ricciardo, he was able to continue after only picking up a puncture initially but later he would pull in to retire as well.
“Unfortunately, our race was pretty much over from the start,” he stated.
“I had too much damage on the car to carry on, which is a shame. I got hit and had a puncture and damage to the floor.
“I’ll look at it with the perspective that if I qualify higher up the grid then I’m less likely to be in the bad stuff.
“I’ll take responsibility for that, but in terms of the accident, I was just a passenger.”