Carlos Sainz’s rare and unprecedented ‘penalty lap’ at F1 British GP explained
Carlos Sainz was handed a rare F1 penalty at the British Grand Prix.
Williams Formula 1 driver Carlos Sainz was hit with a rare post-race penalty after the British Grand Prix.
Sainz was handed an unprecedented penalty lap after he was found to have incorrectly unlapped himself under the late safety car during Sunday’s 52-lap race at Silverstone.
The bizarre incident prompted a post-race stewards investigation, leading to Sainz being punished. Sainz had finished 12th on the road but the penalty demoted him to 17th in the final race classification.
The Spaniard found himself a lap down before Max Verstappen triggered a safety car when he spun off and beached his Red Bull into the gravel at Stowe on lap 48.
Due to an unusual set of circumstances, Sainz managed to temporarily unlap himself when he pitted under the safety car due to the specific and unique layout of the pit entry at Silverstone.
Sainz was technically classed as a non-lapped driver at the start-finish line and therefore was ineligible to unlap himself. But the Williams driver had already done so because he emerged on the lead lap following his pit stop.
The punishment handed out effectively removed the lap Sainz had incorrectly gained from him. Despite the penalty, Sainz was still classified ahead of the Aston Martins of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll.
"The stewards noted that, after completing its pit stop, Car 55 once again was a
lapped car when it re-joined the track,” the stewards’ explained in their verdict. "Given the exceptional track layout at this event, the stewards understand how the sequence of events may have contributed to the team's confusion.
"The team representative acknowledged that the team nevertheless made two errors: firstly, by failing to recognise that Car 55 was not a lapped car at the relevant reference point under Article B5.13.4 c), and secondly, by failing to note that Car 55 was not included in the race control message identifying the cars permitted to overtake the safety car.
"The team representative accepted that they inadvertently gained a lap when they were not entitled to do so.”
It marked the first time since Ricardo Zunino was penalised for corner cutting at the 1981 Argentine Grand Prix that the penalty lap has been issued to a driver.
In this article
Lewis regularly attends Grands Prix for Crash.net around the world. Often reporting on the action from the ground, Lewis tells the stories of the people who matter in the sport.
