Daniil Kvyat, Toro Rosso, Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, 2019

Kvyat criticises penalty, Masi says it ‘could not have been clearer’

2019 Mexican Grand Prix

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Daniil Kvyat criticised the penalty which cost him a points finish in the Mexican Grand Prix, but race director Michael Masi insisted it “could not have been more clear.”

The Toro Rosso driver was given a 10-second time penalty for colliding with Nico Hulkenberg at turn 16 on the final lap. The collision sent the Renault into the wall, although Hulkenberg was able to cross the line in 11th place. That became 10th when Kvyat’s penalty dropped him out of the points.

Kvyat said he was “quite upset” with the penalty. “I disagree with it because we are told we are allowed to race.”

The penalty was decided by a four-person team of stewards. Race director Masi said they felt Kvyat’s move clearly deserved a penalty.

“From having had a chat to the stewards it could not have been more clear,” he said. “I think there was, to use the terminology, in their view, [it] could not have been more black and white.”

Hulkenberg also held his rival fully to blame for the collision.

“Obviously he is guilty,” said the Renault driver. “I left him plenty of space but he does give me a little push on the rear tyre and and that’s all it takes, obviously, to spin a car around.

“[But] it’s racing. As a racing driver, he’s also obliged to take it, to try it. So I can’t really blame him, it’s just racing, but of course you need to try to do it cleaner without hitting each other and then putting cars into the wall.”

Hulkenberg was nursing badly worn tyres at the end of the race and suspects he wouldn’t have been able to keep Kvyat behind to the line if they hadn’t tangled.

“I think he would have got me in the exit of the last corner anyway because my tyres were dead,” he said. “I was on the outside line and I think I would have had a very poor exit.”

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18 comments on “Kvyat criticises penalty, Masi says it ‘could not have been clearer’”

  1. You are allowed to race, yes. You’re even allowed a bit more leeway when battling wheel to wheel or defending your position. You are not, however, permitted to send one up the inside & punt the car ahead into a spin & out of the way. Kvyat is being willfully ignorant.

    1. You are not permitted to punt the car ahead unless your name is Max Verstappen. This penalty wouldnt make anyone angry if the rules were applied to everyone in the same manner.

      1. Verstappen got penalised plenty of times so dont make stuff up ;)

    2. Aldoid +1. You beat me to it. Yes, you are told to race but you are also told to be at least halve a car width alongside to claim the corner.

      1. – Vettel fored Hamilton onto the grass in the run to turn 1; why no penalty? Ferrari International Assistance?

        1. What Vettel did was similar to Grosjean in Spa that caused a major wreck.

          Probably not on purpose but still incredibly dangerous and unnecessary. Hamilton was never going to outdrag him into turn one or pass him on the outside anyway.

  2. I keep thinking that the ten-second penalty on Kvyat was bit harsh. A number of very similar situations were judged as ‘racing incident’ throughout this season, and his touch-and-go with Hülkenberg was virtually identical to the one Verstappen had with Hamilton on lap 1.

    1. So please review the start again. Lewis and Max were racing side by side.
      A 5 second penalty would have kept him in front of Nico which would have been a farce.

    2. I imagine that it was 10 seconds to put him behind Hulk, as it would be a bit unfair to have him punt him out, then only lose a place to his teammate – giving him the same points as he’d have had staying behind and 2 more for the team could’ve set a dangerous precedent, as he wouldn’t have lost anything.
      And just generally @ Kvyat, a penalty was 100% deserved.

      1. As Dany’s fan, I would be more upset with him if he didn’t try. He closed a 9 second gap to Hulk in 4 laps, was the highest placed 2-stopper from F1.5 after being massively disadvantaged by the Q3 tyre rule, and finishing just on the brink of the points would not be a finish to match the effort, in my book. At least he tried, and ok, it’s all or nothing, but in doing so he doubled the team’s points haul and reduced Renault’s. I don’t think TR will be too upset about that.

    3. Not so sure about all this, Hamilton was ahead of Verstappen at the point of contact. Then look at La Source on lap 1, Verstappen almost flipped Kimi’s car while beyond the white line with all four wheels…that was judged as ‘racing incident’…I know that Max was out of the race, but still.

    4. @gpfacts, like yourself, I would lean a bit more towards this being a racing incident.

      I suspect, though, that there are many reasons why it was easier for the stewards to dish this penalty out to Kvyat than to another driver. As a midfield driver, and as one who has been given a reputation for clashes, the stewards know that giving him a penalty is not going to cause anything like the fuss it would cause if a major name driver was given a penalty.

      Furthermore, I think that some of the comments that stewards have made in the past indicate that the reputation of a driver can sometimes come into the equation. The attitude of “OK, what have you done now?” that they sometimes have suggests that the stewards can be pre-disposed to penalise that driver or impose a harsher penalty than they might impose on another driver involved in exactly the same type of incident.

  3. The way Hulk was wiggling out of control I was not surprised when they touched – it must of been hard to gauge where Hulk was going. In the end he did cause a collision but 10 seconds did seem harsh. I think they picked a time that made sure Hulk got 10th back.

  4. Hulkenberg was definitely going too slow and too far close to right. And Masi didn’t bother requesting telemetry to see who was this fault, if there is any.

    Meanwhile Helmut Marko said he was misinterpreted before and all three are contenders for Red Bull seat for next year.

  5. Jose Lopes da Silva
    29th October 2019, 10:58

    Kvyat reminded me of Senna in Suzuka/90. “He shut the door.”

    1. Completely different situation. On Suzuka 90 Senna said – “Prost wouldn’t turn into first corner ahead of me. And that was took place.” It didn’t happen because of Suzuka 89, but because after qualification corrupt Balestre has moved the pole position to dirt right side of the track in favor of second Prost, who moved to left clean side. So he decided – if clean side will work for Prost, then Prost will end good race in first corner.

      1. will end his race*

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