Sainz rages at “the most unfair penalty I’ve ever seen” for Alonso clash
The Ferrari driver was slapped with a five-second time penalty for pitching Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin into a spin at Turn 1 at the final standing restart of Sunday’s chaotic race in Melbourne.
Sainz finished fourth on the road but due to the race ending under Safety Car conditions and the field being bunched up, the Spaniard was relegated down to 12th once his time penalty was applied at the chequered flag.
Sainz was left angered by the decision and only spoke briefly to the media, citing he did not want to receive another penalty for being late to the stewards’ office.
“Right now I cannot talk I’m too angry, too disappointed,” Sainz said. “I just cannot say anything.
“I prefer to go to a stewards, get the penalty away because I don’t think I deserve it and is the most unfair penalty I’ve seen in my life.
“So I will go first to a stewards. I just need to come to the TV pen because if I don’t come, they put me another penalty.”
Sainz’s anguish was evident when he was informed of the penalty over team radio during the wait for the race to be concluded.
“No, it cannot be!” Sainz pleaded. “Do I deserve to be out of the points? No, no! It’s unacceptable. Tell them that it is unacceptable.
“They need to wait until the race is finished and discuss with me. No, please, please, please, please wait and discuss with me! Clearly, the penalty is not deserved and it’s too severe.”
Alonso later admitted that the penalty was probably “too harsh”.
Why was Sainz penalised?
The stewards determined that Sainz was “wholly to blame” for the collision.
“The Stewards reviewed positioning/marshalling system data, video, timing, telemetry, team radio and in-car video evidence and determined that on the first corner of the restart, a collision occurred between Car 55 and Car 14. We determined that Car 55 was wholly to blame for the collision.
“Car 14 was significantly ahead of Car 55 at the first corner and nevertheless Car 55 drove into Car 14, causing it to spin and leave the track. We accordingly imposed a 5-second penalty on Car 55.
“For avoidance of doubt, we took into account the fact that this collision took place at the first lap of the restart, when, by convention, the Stewards would typically take a more lenient view of incidents.
“However, in this particular case, notwithstanding the fact that it was the equivalent of a first lap incident, we considered that there was sufficient gap for Car 55 to take steps to avoid the collision and failed to do so.”
