Haas permitted to repair Grosjean car overnight following drain-cover incident

Haas have been granted special dispensation to work on Romain Grosjean's car overnight after a raised drain cover led to the Frenchman crashing out of the second free practice session at the Malaysian Grand Prix.

FP2 at Sepang was brought to a premature end following the incident on Friday, which saw Grosjean slide into the gravel with his rear-right tyre having been shredded.

A subsequent statement on the official Formula One website confirmed Haas would be permitted to carry out repairs on the heavily damaged car.

"Under F1 rules, teams must normally observe a strict overnight curfew, during which they are not permitted to work on their cars," the statement read. "However, Sepang stewards have granted Haas a one-off waiver due to the unusual nature of the incident.

"Officials said that they 'consider that the circumstances causing the crash of car 8 were entirely and clearly beyond the control of the driver and the competitor [and any other driver or competitor] and consider them as 'force majeure'.

"Haas will only be allowed to work on Grosjean's car and not that of team-mate Kevin Magnussen during the curfew, and both cars must be observed by parc ferme cameras at all times.

"All teams are allowed two exceptions to the curfew per season, but Haas' special dispensation in Malaysia will not count as one of those."

The drain cover that Grosjean hit appeared to have been lifted up when Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas drove over it.