Carlos Sainz cops Mexico grid drop for Kimi Antonelli clash

Carlos Sainz has been hit with a five-place grid penalty for next weekend’s Mexican Grand Prix after clashing with Kimi Antonelli in Austin.

The Williams driver was attempting to overtake Antonelli’s Mercedes for seventh place on Lap 7 of Sunday’s United States Grand Prix when the pair made contact at Turn 15.

Sainz tried to pull off an ambitious move into the left-hander but locked up and slammed into the side of Antonelli, pitching the Italian teenager into a spin.

The Spaniard suffered race-ending damage and was forced to retire on the spot, while Antonelli continued and went on to finish 13th.

The incident was investigated post-race by the stewards, who deemed Sainz the guilty party, handing him a five-place grid drop for the next event in Mexico City.

Sainz has also received two penalty points on his licence, bringing his total for the current 12-month period to four.

“Car 55 attempted an inside overtake on Car 12 at Turn 15 and a collision between the two cars occurred at the apex,” the stewards said in a statement.

“The driver of Car 55 maintained that he had expected the driver of Car 12 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, at no point prior to the apex was the front axle of Car 55 alongside or ahead of the mirror of Car 12.

“Therefore, according to the Driving Standards Guidelines, Car 55 had not earned a right to be left space at the apex. The Stewards therefore determine that the Driver of Car 55 was predominatly to blame for the collision and a penalty is applied accordingly.

“As the driver to be penalized did not finish the race a grid penalty equalling a 10 seconds time penalty is imposed.”

How Carlos Sainz viewed it

Explaining his version of events after the race, Sainz said: “I think he started closing the door earlier than I expected and I ultimately locked up and got a bit scared by him closing on me and yeah, we collided.

“I think the incident looks a lot more bad than what it actually is because in the end it's just a small lock-up with high consequences, but a pity because we're coming on a good weekend.

“You can always play it safe, no? And bring home the P8 and wonder... Then you always go for a move. Sometimes it works perfectly and it goes smooth.

"With Kimi, he was a bit more aggressive, a bit more closing the door, and it was more difficult to get them moved down and then you go home with zero, so this sport is just a very fine balance between just playing it safe, bring home P8 or risking it a bit more to try and bring home the P7 or the P6 and today it didn't quite work.

"I think the incident looks a lot worse with Kimi than what it is. I think he starts turning in on me and when I see him turning in, that's when I lock-up because I realise he's not seen me or we're about to crash anyway because he's closing.

"I know it looks bad from the outside in terms of the lock-up and the contact, but honestly speaking, with these wide apexes that we have here, we both need to be aware of the racing, and I think in this case we both didn't do a good job.”