Carlos Sainz Jnr has been given a three-place grid penalty for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix for his first-lap collision in Canada.
The Toro Rosso driver retired from the race after tangling with Romain Grosjean at the start. His Toro Rosso collided with Felipe Massa’s Williams, putting both out.
“Notwithstanding this, and our conclusion that the collision was not caused by a deliberate act on the part of the driver of Car 55, we find that his assumption (as he stated) that there was no car alongside him and therefore he could move to that track position, was careless and potentially dangerous.”
“This was evidenced by the further collision of car 8 with car 19, a direct result of this incident, which caused the retirement of car 19 [Massa].”
Sainz accepted responsibility for his role in the accident in a social media post. “Apologies to Romain Grosjean and as a consecuence [sic] Felipe Massa. Romain was simply on my blind spot and never got to see him. Glad we are all OK.”
The stewards also gave Sainz two penalty points on his licence, moving him onto a total of seven.
Massa said he was “a complete passenger in the collision.”
“I think Carlos was hit by somebody, but I was the only car that he hit. It’s a shame to finish the race like that, especially when the car has been so competitive all weekend and we could have scored a good amount of points.”
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
11th June 2017, 23:07
Nice to see that he’s accepted he was at fault as well as not kicking up a fuss about his penalty. I do like it when drivers are willing to accept that they’ve made a mistake. But if I am correct, he got 2 penalty points for his collision with Stroll too. So that is 4 penalty points in 4 races. And he’s cost himself 2 races as well as 2 other drivers. That really isn’t good.
Markp
11th June 2017, 23:23
Not the 1st time he has squeezed drivers on the straight he did this to alonso once and got a penalty. Blind spot? He knew he was there, there was no reason to be on the right of the straight he had no cars to his left and cars in front were to far ahead to try to overtake. Grosjean had a run on him and he squeezed him.
Strontium (@strontium)
11th June 2017, 23:39
I’ll never understand why it’s 5 places if your gearbox packs in, but only 3 places for wiping another car out and nearly taking out a third, wrecking his race in the process. This is far too lenient.
swh1386 (@swh1386)
11th June 2017, 23:47
agreed
Gabriel (@rethla)
12th June 2017, 5:45
@strontium He also took out himself
Todfod (@todfod)
12th June 2017, 6:19
Agree. This was as careless as Grosjean’s lap 1 incident at Spa 2012. This should have been a 5 place penalty at the least.
C
12th June 2017, 7:59
in post race interviews Grosjean did bring up Spa 2012 incident pointing blame at stewards. This penalty is too lenient.
grat
12th June 2017, 18:28
Grosjean said that Sainz’s mistake was the same as Grosjean made in Spa– moving over on a driver he didn’t see. He stopped short of calling for a one-race ban, though, saying it was up to the stewards.
hoshino (@hoshino)
11th June 2017, 23:45
Sainz is ahead of Grosjean, turns into corner and hits him, recieves a penalty.
Verstappen is ahead of Vettel, turns into corner and hits him, no investigation.
BobW
12th June 2017, 0:10
The Orange Boy can do no wrong. Some journos are even lamenting the fact Mad Max didn’t finish the race.
lee1
12th June 2017, 0:17
2 things. Sainz’s move was dangerous and could have easily resulted in someone getting hurt. Max’s move was in the first corner where there is lenience given due to the chaos of the start.
Arnoud van Houwelingen
12th June 2017, 1:32
He took the racing line Max .. what should he do drive in the grass .. even Vettel Saïd that it was not Max his fault!
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
12th June 2017, 3:29
@hoshino completely different incidents. So different to one another that it’s quite incredible that you’re drawing any kind of comparison.
For starters, Max touched Seb already on the corner, the first one of the first lap no less. Sainz made contact even before the braking point. And Max didn’t take anyone out.
Patrick (@paeschli)
11th June 2017, 23:50
Something should be done about these mirrors, pretty much every driver agrees you can’t see a thing in these 2017 cars.
Vandoorne didn’t see Massa in Spain, Button was shocked by the poor visibility in Monaco and now Sainz who almost did a Spa 2012.
swh1386 (@swh1386)
11th June 2017, 23:52
I’m a big fan of Sainz but he’s making a lot of mistakes this season, today his clumsiest and most dangerous. Kvyat isn’t exactly putting him under pressure (4 points to 25 so far) but I think this is a make or break season for him with potentially top seats available at Ferrari, Mercedes and consequently Red Bull, in my opinion he’s overdriving a little in his eagerness to impress
Edd
12th June 2017, 2:52
He is looking increasingly nervous on team radio as well.
Red Bull already secured the current drivers for next year, so that door is closed already.
He may land a seat at a team like Renault, but he is not material for top teams. Even last year he didn’t look that good. Kvyat was the one underperforming, and a still is. It’s easy to look impressive against a guy who scored less than 10 points in 20 races with the team.
faulty (@faulty)
12th June 2017, 0:22
Y has no penalty points?
I am dissapoint.
Twitteratti
12th June 2017, 0:59
The stewarding was dreadful this weekend. I think Kvyat can rightfully be very annoyed when you see Sainz’s penalty.
Kvyat has a clutch issue, drops to the back, wrongly reassumes his place and gets 2 penalties (because the stewards made a mess issuing the 1st) then 2 penalty points to add insult to injury!, if the stewards just issued a drive through in the 1st 5 laps then he drops to the back again, job done. It’s not as if there was much investigation needed. “Did he start in the wrong place according to the regulations?”,”Yes”, “Drive Through, to the back of the field you go”. The stop/go was way OTT and the initial penalty was fair, even if it wasn’t what the stewards intended. To then effectively double penalise him to make up the time they missed with the wrong penalty was harsh. Then to slap 2 points on his license as well? c’mon now, it was a slight rule confusion, not dangerous driving.
KMags penalty was harsh as well, yes he overtook under VSC but right as the period ended in a place it was hard to spot, he immediately realised the error and let the car back through, a small time penalty is sufficient. penalty points added as well? What he did was wrong to the rules, not dangerous.
Then there’s Sainz… the only driver to take somebody out the race, ruin somebody elses by driving into them twice, endanger the safety of others… For actually being a danger (not for the first time either) he gets a 3 place grid drop and 2 points as well. Overall, far less than what KMag or Kvyat got for what were basically small regulation errors and far less than he’d even get for a gearbox or engine penalty.
It really makes a mockery of the whole penalty system.
praero
14th June 2017, 20:06
Agree, 3 places on grid for such dangerous moves is round 2/10 and 15m, compared to 5 sec at racing speed for Mag for that minord which was even corrected?? And Kvyat 2x a LOT also or nothing dangerous. Saintz should compareable also have had -5 finish places next finished race. The different impact of a 5 sec in race penalty is 5-7 placea in the midfield, while if you ar in frint og last same punishment is nothing?? Mag also got 5 sec for returning over curb into free space, ga e pos back, still 5 sec, is pos back nothing anymore for the small teams? MAJOR impact for them, while Saintz moves 2/10 back Next time……….
billbranch (@)
12th June 2017, 1:21
Let me get this straight: he wrecks Massa’s car and is given a three grid place penalty. His negligence caused the accident. The damage to Williams is the cost to fix the car plus the potentially lost points after the DNF to Massa. This a slap on the wrist.
We have some young drivers who are deified because they have taken chances and much has ended well. The only thing that will rein in the recklessness is a fatal accident, and everyone will be oh, so sad, and there will be oh, so many, tears, but those who have acquiesced to the reckless young so-called talented drivers should be held equally as quilty as the boys behind the wheel.
Edd
12th June 2017, 3:23
Massa must be the unluckiest guy there by far.
Given the circunstances, he could have grabbed at least 8 points today.
sumedh
12th June 2017, 5:07
This was a move reminiscent of Spa 2012 by Grosjean. There, Grosjean got a one race ban. Here, its a 3-place grid drop? May be it is first lap, may be it is the lenient stewarding this year, but seems like he got off easy.
Fine, if you don’t want to penalize him for the next race so much. But at least, he should get 3-4 penalty points for a move like this. So that, when he gets a race ban eventually, we can look back and think, “yeah, that is fair”, and not “he should have got it sooner”.
Todfod (@todfod)
12th June 2017, 6:23
He could have gotten off a little easier than expected by the stewards because of the way they messed up the other Toro Rosso’s race. What they pulled off with Kvyat was just ridiculous. Don’t think a race stewards job is hard as they make it out to be.
dwd3
12th June 2017, 7:32
Sainz make right move twice and didn’t see other cars ? what he trying to do ? heat up the tyres ? come on this was already in the race…
C
12th June 2017, 7:56
Sainz has gone down to gutter level at this point making Kvyat look like a better driver this year.
Fukobayashi (@)
12th June 2017, 10:49
Sainz is really dropping the ball this year and putting himself out of contention for a top seat. So many drivers that were heralded are driving poorly this year: Sainz, Vandoorne, Grosjean. While others that were counted out are performing well, Weirhlein. Only Ocon is living up to the hype.
RossoTorro (@)
12th June 2017, 13:55
a 5 or 10 place penalty would have been in order, not the first time Sainz shown his poor skills in wheel to wheel battles banging cars left and right, Magnussen and Perez can share a few stories on that. Now he has some pressure on from the Ferrari fairy tales his father made up and Kvyat getting closer and closer you see him screw up again.
He’s fast but so is Maldonado.
Shrieker (@shrieker)
12th June 2017, 16:29
Should’ve been at least a 10 place grid penalty, preferably a pit lane start.
Sakis (@)
12th June 2017, 17:15
Just one observation.
Being prejudiced or biased in favor or against some people sometimes, I find it perfectly normal. When emotions are talking and not the mouth or the mind, I think it’s quite difficult to be openminded.
But constantly bashing and swearing EXACTLY the same people everytime, waiting in the corner for the moment you are gonna deploy your attack, with no obvious reason and justification, is something totally different.
And I am gonna explain. On yesterday’s (just after the race) @keithcollantine ‘s articles, I counted at least 30 posts saying more or less: “The idiot who ruined Vettel’s race”. I also saw quite a few people saying more or less: “Typical (obviously meaning typical idiotic) Grosjean move”.
Today, I saw two new articles. On one of them, VET was saying that it was not VER’s fault and maybe he, VET himself, should have been more careful and on another one, SAI was given penalty for his collision with GRO, meaning it was not GRO’s fault.
A mind with just common sense expects them, at least some and not all of these guys, to appear on these two articles and say: “You know what? Maybe I was wrong on what I said”.
Well, none of these guys are here. Why guys? Care to explain?
Ferrari, Seb fan
12th June 2017, 18:25
I think the stewards should have a new grid penalty system:
3 place grid penalty : gearbox change
5 place grid penalty : engine change, collision with another car.
10 place grid penalty : major collision.
Ferrari, Seb fan
12th June 2017, 18:48
And for time penalties:
3 seconds: coner cutting, exceeding track limits
5 seconds: overtaking under safety car/ vuritual safety car, speeding in the pit lane
10 seconds: collision, intentionally going into wrong grid slot (kyvat)
Drive-through: major collision
Stop-go: massive collision
Let me know if I have forgot any!