Kvyat handed two penalty points for lap one Sainz clash

2017 British Grand Prix

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Daniil Kvyat has been hit with two penalty points on his superlicense by the stewards after his opening lap collision with team mate Carlos Sainz Jnr.

The two Toro Rosso drivers clashed in Becketts on the first lap after running side-by-side through Maggots, forcing Sainz into an early retirement and leaving Kvyat’s car damaged.

Kvyat was able to continue after the clash, but the stewards handed the Russian a drive through penalty for rejoining the circuit in an unsafe manner.

The stewards also handed Kvyat two penalty points on his superlicense for ‘rejoining the track in an unsafe manner and causing a collision with car 55’.

Kvyat now has nine points in total over the last 12 months. Any driver who receives 12 points in a single 12 month period will be banned from participating in one grand prix.

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Will Wood
Will has been a RaceFans contributor since 2012 during which time he has covered F1 test sessions, launch events and interviewed drivers. He mainly...

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33 comments on “Kvyat handed two penalty points for lap one Sainz clash”

  1. Why? I know his race penalty was inconsequential. I have a feeling that if it was another driver doing that on a race opening lap there would be no penalty at all.

    1. Inconsistent stewarding in F1?
      What makes you think that?

    2. You have a feeling? it’s for sure! A Merc driver and Verst can do whatever they want, FIA will never do anything against them….As for me, enough is enough, they do the game, they can watch it, I’ve got better things to do

    3. @peartree He was at fault and he paid the price. What’s the mystery?

      1. GtisBetter (@)
        16th July 2017, 15:11

        Rejoining the track? That penalty is just ridiculous. Though i have no idea how Kvyat could blame sainz.

    4. Don’t get the issue. Drivers are always getting penalty points for taking someone out, regardless if it’s the first lap or not (see Sainz at Canada or Vettel at Malaysia).

  2. Torro Rosso may have to think about changes in their lineup for 2018.

  3. And if someone is given a race ban, is the team allowed to replace the banned driver for that race?

    1. Yes Jerome Dambrosio did that in 2012 replacing Grosjean after Spa bowling.

  4. Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
    16th July 2017, 15:17

    To me, he did rejoin the track in a slightly dangerous way, but he pulled along side Sainz and Sainz effectively left him no space which forced him onto the grass. At the Speed Kvyat was going, he either had to back off totally, or try to join the track as soon as possible, which is what he did. It was a risky overtake that he attempted, but It really did look like Sainz made him go onto the grass. But the way he joined onto the track wasn’t quite worth 2 penalty points. I agree with Coulthard and would say it was just a high speed racing incident. It is surprising that Kvyat has now collected 6 penalty points over Canada, Austria and here in Britain. His incidents looked nowhere near as bad as the couple Sainz had. Especially what he did in Canada. I know the stewards will see more than us but I think this was the wrong decision again. Although I guess Sainz’s penalties were more harsh as he had to retire in both of his crashes as well as collecting 2 penalty points and 3 place grid drops. But it does seem that they are a little overly harsh on Kvyat and inconsistent some of the time.

      1. Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
        16th July 2017, 16:57

        Fair enough. That replay shows things quite differently. I still think that a time penalty would have been enough though. It was no worse than what Perez did on Kvyat in Monaco. Perez just got a penalty but no points. I personally think that will have been enough for this incident with Sainz and Kvyat.

    1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
      17th July 2017, 16:54

      @janderclanderr that video shows that Kvyat squeezed Sainz out, then ran off on his own, then smashed into him.

      Sainz gave him about as much room as a car can possibly give another driver and didn’t retaliate…

      Why would Kvyat try an overtake on those corners?

      Sainz had passed him and I get that he didn’t like it but why try the pass there? Isn’t that the Maggotts, Becketts, Chapel section? Was the WDC on the line on the last lap of the last race?

      If not, it was just a terrible reaction and call from Kvyat. Ocon passed Perez but Checo stayed behind him for the whole race – he didn’t try to pass him at the worst section of the track on Lap 1.

      Compare these 2 drivers… Perez is showing incredible maturity while Kvyat is displaying the opposite.

  5. This guy needs and will be the first to get a ban this season but I say he needs a further demotion to reserve driver. He has no career at RB after his swap. Sainz is also not a positive influence on the team but listen up.
    Kvyat knows he had Sainz on the outside and decides to not only overtake him into Maggots but go back at all costs on the race track after getting onto the grass with the risk of running into his teammate with cold tyres KNOWING he is there! HE could easily just braked or cut into Becketts.

    Helmut Marko must really be thinking they made the right choice bringing Max to RB now in hindsight. So they won’t get into RB both. This weekend proved it again. Every weekend one of them screws up so badly.

  6. Neil (@neilosjames)
    16th July 2017, 15:48

    I like Kvyat but I think he might be getting a P45 to go with his penalty points if he doesn’t sort things out. Shame really… would be interesting to see how he might have developed had he not been promoted to Red Bull before he was ready. Been on a non-stop mission to prove himself since then and being bumped back down to Toro Rosso pretty much destroyed him.

  7. When you watch the incident from the two cars, you arrive at 2 different conclusions.
    More racing incident.

  8. Penalty points aside, Kyvat has been pretty poor this season. Ever since he got dumped from the senior team, he’s had his wind gassed out of him. He’s lost the plot.

    Come Dr Marko…give Gasly as go..it can’t be much worse..could it?

    1. Watching this Russian is frustrating. Can we have another, please? How’s Sirotkin coming along? Is Markelov being considered at all?

  9. Seems harsh to me, he hit a bump on the grass and lost control. The only real option he had was to give up and straight-line the corner, but I probably would have tried to hold it too in his position.

  10. One season and a half with abysmal driving. The last decent race he had was China last year!

    Red Bull must be really desperate to keep him. Where is Buemi?

    1. Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
      16th July 2017, 17:01

      He has had multiple decent races since then. Several this year too. His performance in Australia was very good and Monaco was perfectly reasonable too. Bahrain may have been out of the points but he did haev a good scrap with other drivers with several great overtakes. 4 of the races this year he’s had to retire in down to nothing of his own cause. He’s not as bad as we think. His team mate has had 2 worse incidents than any of Kvyat’s this year. But Sainz has also had 2 or 3 very good races. The only race this year that I think Kvyat had an excellent performance in was Australia.

  11. So to turbo boost the silly season :
    Kvyat off, Jolyon off, Renault goes for Sainz, Torro Rosso for Gasly+Kubica
    :D

    1. Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
      16th July 2017, 20:49

      It is looking very likely that Kvyat will remain with the team. If Sainz is leaving, it makes a lot of sense to keep an experienced driver in the team.

      https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/kvyat-new-toro-rosso-contract-928978/

      1. Because that experience is giving a lot of results right?

        1. Ah ah ah :D

  12. The guy is clearly not good enough for F1. An appalling season for Toro Rosso.

  13. Kvyat a complete liability. His days must be numbered. Crash after careless crash where he is wholly to blame, often involving team-mates or Red Bull drivers. He’s been given chance after chance, I really can’t see him having a future in F1

    1. I can’t help but agree. He’s had plenty of opportunities in his time in F1. Sure, he’s had some great results, but after so many years, he’s still making stupid first lap errors like this with his team mates, let alone other drivers.

      I strongly feel it’s time for him to leave F1 and make way for Pierre to learn the ropes alongside Sainz.

  14. I don’t see why he is still in F1.

  15. Michael Brown (@)
    17th July 2017, 3:13

    With him going off the track at that speed I don’t see how he could have safely rejoined the track

  16. I like Kvyat, always have, he’s quite a funny character. I really wanted him to keep his seat this year, and his pace has been good. But his inability to put together a weekend through awful reliability, and recent clumsiness is getting ridiculous. He NEEDS a result.

  17. Okay the reason for the penalty is a farce. “Car was out of control when it rejoined the track”.
    They should have given a penalty for hazardous driving.

    But the pattern for Kamikaze Kvyat a.k.a. “The Torpedo” is very clear now.

    1. Drive fast.
    2. Break to late.
    3. Loos control over the car.
    4. Bump one of more cars out of the race
    5. Play innocent and blame something/somebody else: “It’s not my fault it was ……”

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