passed on to Grouillard who was fast gaining his own reputation of being a blocker. 1990 Grouillard joined the Italian Osella team, taking the seat of Nicola Larini, who in return took Grouillard's seat at Ligier. He was not partnered for 1990 as the financially struggling Osella scaled back their operations, meaning Grouillard had to pre-qualify for the races. He managed to qualify in 8th in Phoenix ahead of Nigel Mansell and Alessandro Nannini which amazed many people in Formula One. During the race, Grouillard was hit by Riccardo Patrese's Williams at the second corner and eventually retired after a second collision with the Swiss driver Gregor Foitek. At Brazil, he retired after another collision involving Michele Alboreto. For Imola the car was upgraded, but that did not help the team as Grouillard retired (not before blocking Mansell in qualifying and ruining the Ferrari's qualifying run, earning the Frenchman a fist wave from Mansell, and not for the last time). He also failed to qualify at Monaco. Two consecutive finishes outside the top 10 at Canada and Mexico were followed up with a poor run in pre-qualifying for France, ending up not qualifying for the race and at Silverstone and Hockenheim, where he also failed to qualify along with another failure to pre-qualify at Hungary. Grouillard finished 16th at Spa with retirements at Monza and Jerez with wheel bearing problems that plagued the Frenchman throughout the year. At the season ending Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide, Grouillard finished 13th and again held up Nigel Mansell during the race which led to the British driver shaking his fist at the Frenchman in front of the on-board camera. 1991 Grouillard remained with Osella, which had been bought out and renamed to Fondmetal. The team had to race with the car used for the two previous years, which led to Grouillard not being able to get past pre-qualifying at Phoenix and Interlagos. A new car was built, but this did not change Grouillard's season, as he had further three failures to pre-qualify. A change of fortune did come at Mexico, where he qualified his season-best 10th, but was forced to start from the pit lane after suffering from mechanical problems in the car, and he eventually succumbed to an engine failure after 14 laps. He retired in his home race at France with an oil leak, and had further failures to pre-qualify at