Autobayng News Team
Carlos Sainz Jnr will have to serve a five-place grid drop at the Mexican Grand Prix as his punishment for colliding with Andrea Kimi Antonelli.
The Williams driver knocked his rival into a spin when the pair collided at turn 15 during today’s United States Grand prix. Sainz retired due to damage but Antonelli was able to continue and finished 13th.
The stewards ruled Sainz was “predominantly” responsible for the collision and, as he did not finish, handed him a penalty for the next race.
According to the stewards, “the driver of car 55 [Sainz] maintained that he had expected the driver of car 12 [Antonelli] to leave him space at the apex but car 12 turned in early and car 55 locked brakes when it became clear that a collision was unavoidable. He suggested that the driver of car 12 ought to have anticipated an overtake attempt by car 55 and left space to avoid contact.”
However the stewards ruled that: “at no point prior to the apex was the front axle of car 55 alongside or ahead of the mirror of car 12” and “therefore, according to the Driving Standards Guidelines, car 55 had not earned a right to be left space at the apex.”
Antonelli said Sainz arrived at the corner far too quickly. “I don’t think he was going to make the corner anyway,” he told the official Formula 1 channel. “I tried to avoid hitting the apex just to give him a bit more space but I ended up getting taken out.”
Sainz had overtook Oliver Bearman at the same corner earlier in the race and said he was trying to put the same pass on Antonelli when they made contact.
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“It didn’t quite work out the same way that it did with Ollie,” Sainz admitted. “I felt like at the time I was on a very good pace, had a very good feeling with the car and I felt like it was a good opportunity to make a move.
“Unfortunately with Kimi it didn’t work out in the same way. I felt that Kimi was quite a bit more aggressive than Ollie on the defence and on the turn-in to the corner and that kind of scared me at the moment which forced me to hit the brakes hard to avoid a collision.
“In the end, it didn’t matter because I locked the brakes and I hit him and we caused an accident. But it looks a lot worse from the outside than what it felt from the inside.”
Penalty box
Did the stewards issue the correct penalty? Cast your vote below and have your say in the comments.
Sainz’s penalty for his collision with Antonelli was:
- No opinion (0%)
- Far too lenient (0%)
- Slightly too lenient (0%)
- Correct (76%)
- Slightly too harsh (12%)
- Far too harsh (12%)
Total Voters: 25
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