Sainz penalized for his collision with Piastri

The Ferrari driver had finished the race in fourth place on Sunday, behind his teammate Charles Leclerc, but he drops one place, finding himself behind Sergio Perez in a revised ranking, after being penalized with a five-second time penalty.

Carlos Sainz had reached fourth place after a long battle with McLaren driver Oscar Piastri, who had overtaken Charles Leclerc to move into second position early in the race, before a safety car intervention changed the strategic outlook of the race and helped Lando Norris win his first F1 race.

As the two were fighting for fourth place, Sainz was furious after Piastri went unpunished for what the Spaniard perceived as an excessive defensive move in turn 11, where he was pushed wide. After receiving persistent radio messages asking why no penalty was given, Sainz went back on the attack when informed that no further investigation would take place.

Approaching Piastri with the assistance of DRS towards turn 17, Sainz dove inside before a rear skid made him sweep the front wing of the McLaren. This forced Piastri to pit for a new wing, costing him any chance of scoring points.

A mitigated sanction

After investigating the incident, the stewards determined that Sainz was guilty of causing a collision and imposed a five-second penalty on him, as well as a penalty point on his license. The stewards’ report stated: « It appeared to us clearly that car 55 was responsible for the collision. In the overtaking attempt, car 55 braked late, missed the apex, and consequently lost the rear, resulting in the ensuing collision. Although car 81 was trying to turn to counter the overtaking attempt, car 81 left enough space for car 55. In these circumstances, we consider car 55 to be primarily responsible for the collision. »

The report, however, pointed out that mitigating factors had caused the incident, adding: “The fact is that without the slight loss of control of the rear of car 55, the collision probably would not have occurred and it would have been a tough but good race. The standard penalty for a collision is 10 seconds with 2 penalty points. In light of the mitigating circumstances, we therefore impose a time penalty of 5 seconds with 1 penalty point.”