The German went unpunished for the incident, but Max Verstappen received a 10-second penalty for hitting Daniel Ricciardo at the next corner.

Grosjean's Haas teammate Kevin Magnussen was also penalised five seconds after forcing Hulkenberg wide later in the race.

Grosjean expressed his frustration about what he perceives as a lack of consistency in decisions, and especially the fact that there is often more leeway with Turn 1 incidents.

"It was a big hit and I went pretty high in the air," the Haas driver told Motorsport.com. "He had lots of space on the inside, but he locked things up.

"I don't see the difference between Nico and Verstappen, to be fair. Again, the stewards' consistency is a bit strange.

"It was Turn 1 – but Spa-Francorchamps in 2012 was Turn 1, and we can't do whatever we want. Turn 1, lap two, lap 10, it's the same thing. You can't run over another car."

Asked about the FIA's desire to allow drivers to race, he said: "Magnussen raced! It's hard, and I do appreciate it's very hard.

"But with Kevin there wasn't even contact with Hulkenberg. Nico hit me, Kevin did not hit Nico, he just pushed him very, very wide."

Grosjean says that he will raise the subject with FIA race director Charlie Whiting at the drivers' briefing in Spa.

"It's come up before, and I went to see Charlie after that briefing, because there was some great racing between Vettel and Verstappen in the last race, but it was off track and coming back, so I said what can we do?

"We want racing, but we don't want wheel-banging, we're not in NASCAR."