Carlos Sainz claims Fernando Alonso radio complaints provoked F1 Spanish GP penalty “like always”
Carlos Sainz has hit out at Fernando Alonso after their clash in the Spanish Grand Prix.
Carlos Sainz has accused fellow home hero Fernando Alonso of provoking a penalty through his radio complaints after their clash during Formula 1’s Spanish Grand Prix.
The Williams driver was hit with a five-second time penalty for colliding with Alonso at Turn 5 as they battled for position at the Madring on Sunday.
Sainz and Alonso made contact which left the Aston Martin driver with damage to his front wing.
The two-time world champion vented his fury at Sainz over team radio, saying: "At the start, he crashed into two people. Now he squeezed me into the wall in the braking.”
A defensive Sainz pointed the finger at Alonso for his complaints over the radio “like always”, believing his rival ultimately encouraged the FIA stewards to penalise him.
"It's the nature of that corner when you turn right and I think he complained on the radio so he managed to get me a penalty like always," Sainz said.
"I think it's the nature of that corner is always going to lead to this kind of crashes because there's only space for one, there's not even space for two – and you cannot keep looking in your mirror while you're turning and doing a right-left because you need to look forward, so at one point you need to focus on your own driving line.
"I don't think Fernando was alongside me or anything.”
The stewards determined that Sainz moved under braking and should have left Alonso more space.
"Car 14 [Alonso] was closing in on Car 55 [Sainz] on the approach to Turn 5 and was in the process of pulling alongside when Car 55 moved towards the right edge of the track after the deceleration phase had commenced, causing both cars to slightly make contact," the stewards’ said in their verdict.
"The stewards determine that Car 55 moved under braking and should have left more space for Car 14 on the outside. The baseline penalty for moving under braking is a black/white flag. However, the stewards take into account that both cars made contact and therefore impose a time penalty accordingly.”
Sainz would later retire from his home race with damage, while Alonso could only finish 17th.
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