Rivals’ moves were “borderline unacceptable” says Sainz after Hulkenberg’s penalty

Carlos Sainz Jnr said some of his rivals made “borderline unacceptable” moves after contact with two other drivers ended his Monaco Grand Prix.

The Williams drive was inside the points when the race resumed after the red flag. However following the restart he was hit by Nico Hulkenberg and Franco Colapinto, leaving his car terminally damaged.

“Unfortunately, at the restart, some people decided to risk everything to try and get a point or two,” said Sainz. “I was the victim of people being very overoptimistic and doing a mistake that honestly was borderline unacceptable.”

The incident began at the Fairmont Hotel Hairpin where Hulkenberg knocked Sainz into a barrier. The Williams driver then continued to Portier where he was hit by Colapinto.

“Every year around Monaco you get to turn six [Fairmont], there’s a bunch-up, you need to lift, and you know you’re going to bump into a car in front because everyone’s trying to get through that corner,” said Sainz. “So it’s difficult to see how with so much experience we’re still able to do this kind of mistake and throw my race away with someone fighting for whatever they were trying to fight.”

The stewards handed Hulkenberg a 10-second penalty for the first collision, stating that he “turned into car 55 [Sainz] in turn eight [sic] causing a collision.”

They took no action over Sainz’s subsequent tangle with Colapinto two corners later, ruling it happened as the Williams driver tried to pull out of the way of other cars.

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“The stewards concluded that the collision with car 55 was caused by the unexpected change of direction of car 55,” they noted. “Car 55 allowed other cars to pass following its prior collision with car 27 [Hulkenberg], which caused damage to car 55. Car 55 then attempted to move to the right off the racing line and was collided with by car 43 [Colapinto].”

Hulkenberg said he couldn’t have done more to prevent his collision with Sainz after previously swerving to avoid Esteban Ocon. “If you do a restart with seven laps to go, of course it’s going to be heated,” he said.

“I had to avoid Esteban, I had to dive on the inside to, not run into the back of him. I ended up on the very inside, in [the hairpin], maximum lock. I couldn’t turn more and I can’t vanish and Carlos obviously comes around and we make contact. So it’s unfortunate, but I don’t know what to say really.”

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