Carlos Sainz (Williams) calls for a penalty for himself – and gets it

It may be his home Grand Prix, but so far it really hasn’t been his weekend: Williams driver Carlos Sainz had a poor qualifying session at the Madring and was eliminated in Q1. And now he’s also been handed a retrospective penalty. He’ll start the Spanish Grand Prix three places further back than he had already qualified (17th). That puts him in 20th on the grid.

What happened? In Q1, Carlos Sainz got in the way of Valtteri Bottas (Cadillac) in turns 6 and 7; he was travelling more slowly on the racing line and hindered Bottas. The race stewards summoned the drivers after the session had ended (both had been eliminated in Q1).

Sainz called for a penalty

Sainz certainly deserves credit for his fair play in handling the situation. Speaking on camera whilst qualifying was still underway, he admitted: “I clearly hindered him and should be penalised. We didn’t see him. I didn’t even know he was on a push lap.”

This is what the ruling states

And that’s exactly what happened: Carlos Sainz received a three-place grid penalty for his home Grand Prix. The ruling states: “The team failed to inform the driver of car 55 (Sainz, ed.) that car 77 (Bottas, ed.) was approaching on a flying lap, and the driver did not take any action to make way for the oncoming car. The stewards rule that car 55 unnecessarily impeded car 77.”

A bitter start to a race the Spaniard had actually been so much looking forward to. Sainz is an ambassador for the Madrid circuit, attended the ground-breaking ceremony and was involved in the design and construction of the circuit in his home city of Madrid. Now, however, it looks as though the race weekend itself is set to be a debacle for him. It was clear that he wouldn’t be in contention for the top places; the Williams is simply too weak for that this season. But now it feels as though everything is going against Sainz – and on a circuit where overtaking is virtually impossible, leaving little chance of a comeback.

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