Nicholas Latifi, Williams, Singapore, 2022

Latifi handed five-place penalty for colliding with Zhou

2022 Singapore Grand Prix

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Nicholas Latifi has been given a five-place grid penalty for the next race after the stewards held him responsible for a collision with Zhou Guanyu.

The pair tangled at turn five on lap seven while fighting over 18th place. The stewards ruled Zhou was entitled to be left space by Latifi, but the Williams driver caused contact between them.

“The stewards reviewed the video evidence and determined that Latifi was predominantly to blame for the collision,” they noted. “Zhou was attempting to overtake Latifi on a straight approaching turn five and had sufficient room, taking the normal racing line.

“Latifi pulled to the left, not leaving one car width to Zhou and resulting in significant contact between the cars.”

Both drivers retired as a result of the collision. Latifi’s five-place penalty will be applied at next weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka.

The stewards also applied two penalty points to Latifi’s licence. It puts him on a total of three for the current 12-month period.

Latifi said he didn’t realise Zhou was alongside him when they tangled. “From the previous corner I had looked in the mirrors to see where Zhou Guanyu was,” he explained. “I didn’t see he was there, so I took my normal approach for the racing line on the following corner.

“I don’t know if he was in a blind spot of the car where the mirror can’t pick up. Unfortunately, he was there and in hindsight I needed to leave more room, but I can only go off what I can see in the mirrors.”

He returned to the pits after the collision but wasn’t able to continue. “The aim was to see the chequered flag and learn from the experience with it being my first race here, however the incident caused suspension damage which forced us to retire the car,” he said.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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8 comments on “Latifi handed five-place penalty for colliding with Zhou”

  1. P20 in qualifying + 5 is still P20. Nothing changes for Latifi.

    1. I think it means he’ll be starting from the canteen.

  2. So there’ll be five empty grid slots between him and his usual position of last.

    1. Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
      2nd October 2022, 16:52

      His usual starting position is infact hardly ever last. He’s started last twice this season and that is it.

      and @handliver

      While he usually is right near the bottom in qualifying, there have been 3 times where he has started much higher than p20 and close to the top 10.

    2. those will probably be filled by cars taking engine penalties!

  3. And just to mock this penalty he’ll do a vintage Latifi : qualify dead last a full second off everybody else.

  4. As soon as I read the headline – I came looking for the jokes.

    But I honestly don’t think he has been that bad. Overall. Is he a future world champion? No, of course not. He has had some good teammates in some really rubbish cars.

    What he was doing getting involved in the Gasly / Hamilton thing when getting lapped will probably only ever make sense in his head!?!? That was amongst the weirdest penalty points ever received.

    I doubt we’ll see him in F1 again – but I don’t think he was perhaps as bad as people make out. He often got ahead of Russell and Russell is often ahead of Hamilton this year. I hope he goes down in history as a competent half decent driver who Williams needed at the time.

    He has done some daft things, but then who hasn’t? He’s not the greatest by a long way – but not the worst by a long way either.

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