Romain Grosjean joke triggers tense confrontation: 'He fancied a bit of a fist fight'

Romain Grosjean and Marcus Armstrong were involved in an altercation at IndyCar's Sonsio Grand Prix, after the former approached the latter to discuss an incident between the pair during the race.

The French-Swiss driver finished the event — which was held on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course, ahead of the 110th running of the Indianapolis 500 — last on the road in P21, having qualified P11.

The Dale Coyne Racing driver was seemingly unhappy with the New Zealander, who had carved his way through the field from the back of the pack to the position that Grosjean had started in.

Footage captured of the former F1's attempted conversation with Armstrong shows members of his Meyer Shank team trying to prevent the 10-time podium winner from reaching their driver.

Speaking to IndyCar afterwards, he said that Grosjean "fancied a bit of a fist fight" following their on-track skirmish.

"I don't know, he fancied a bit of a fist fight, actually, a bit of UFC, a bit of MMA, something I'm not accustomed to," Armstrong said when it was put to him that Grosjean was apparently angry at the situation.

"But hey, you know what? I've got a 350-pound fueler who was, like, right behind me, so fair played to Romain, he's got some balls for trying to attack me with him behind me."

When asked if that surprised him, he replied: "I almost said on the radio, 'Cue the pit lane brawl'.

"Actually, we've always discussed it, like imagine a brawl on pit lane. How would we stack up? And I think we'd stack up pretty well."

Motorsport reporter Marshall Pruett, who has posted the confrontation on social media, later confirmed that Grosjean called him to explain, revealing part of the hostility was due to a misunderstanding.

"Romain called to say he was simply trying to talk to Marcus and made a joke about wanting to punch him and that it was taken out of context and that’s where the misunderstanding happened," he tweeted on X (formerly Twitter).

Check out that footage below!

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