Romain Grosjean says his podium at the Belgium Grand Prix shows how far he has come as a driver since the infamous collision he triggered at the start of the 2012 race at Spa-Francorchamps.

Three years ago Grosjean caused a multiple car pile-up when he pushed Lewis Hamilton off the track on the run down to La Source and was catapulted dangerously over the front of Fernando Alonso's Ferrari. It earned the Frenchman a one-race ban, the first in 18 years, and a hefty fine.

Grosjean banished the memory of that incident in fine style on Sunday, capping a great drive with a podium after Sebastian Vettel's tyre failure.

"It's been an incredible weekend for us," Grosjean said. "A great qualifying yesterday, unfortunately we had that five-place grid penalty, and then a very good race. I can't believe we are on the podium. The guys have been working hard to give us that car and be able to be here today. It's kind of special. For us, it has the prize of a race win."

In the press conference for the top three after the race, Grosjean reflected on the collision of 2012.

"It's been quite a little bit up and down for me here, of course my collision with Lewis here was a bit of a tough time. But in hindsight, it's helped me become who I am today, and to be able to be on the podium this weekend shows how strong our guys and how strong we are capable of building a car. It was a great race, I enjoyed every minute and if we can do it again, that's good."

Grosjean worked with a psychologist after his erratic 2012 season and he explained how that has made him a better person and racing driver.

"Well I think it's no secret I worked with psychologists specialising in sport and high athletes, there's a lot of people in the world, there are workings from psychologists, and there are studies to overcome your problems and to understand. Being a father, I know what is in here, so sometime we can speak about being in fatherhood or being a husband, or being a racing driver, a big problem at the start - what was the key? what was the problem? Was I focusing on the right way or the wrong way? All that work, has not always been nice and easy, you can have a bad night after a good session, but help you to understand things and to be able to put out some performance as we did today."