Daniil Kvyat says the stewards were wrong to give him a drive-through penalty for his first-lap collision with the two McLaren drivers.
The stewards ruled the Toro Rosso driver was “wholly to blame” for the collision because he “lost control of his car”. However after reviewing the collision Kvyat disputed the decision.“I have seen the first lap incident with the two McLarens and I disagree with penalty,” he said. “I think it was a typical lap one sandwich and these things can happen as we’re so close together.”
Kvyat tangled with Carlos Sainz Jnr intially, which sent him into the side of Lando Norris. Both McLarens had to pit for repairs and Kvyat’s drive-through penalty dropped him out of contention.
Toro Rosso team principal Franz Tost backed his driver. “[He was] hit from behind which destabilised the car,” said Tost. “At the same time, Norris returned to the track after going wide and hit Daniil’s front left-hand side of the car.
“In my opinion, Daniil couldn’t do anything different, nevertheless the stewards decided to give him a drive through penalty.”
“It was an unfortunate race today because after lap one the race was pretty much over,” he said. “The pace we showed with a damaged car was very strong, so it’s disappointing not to be able to transform that into a good result as there was potential to finish inside the points today.”
Kvyat’s team mate Alexander Albon scored the final point for tenth place.
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krxx
14th April 2019, 11:40
Kvyat, Tost and krxx disagree with penalty for “lap one sandwich”
nase
14th April 2019, 11:43
And they’re both absolutely right. What a bogus penalty!
Jere (@jerejj)
14th April 2019, 12:25
Misleading headline, but I agree that a penalty wasn’t that necessary. It could’ve been regarded as a pure racing incident as well, but not this time.
Chaitanya
14th April 2019, 16:23
Giovinazzis punt was worse than todays 1st lap incident.
Invisiblekid (@invisiblekid)
14th April 2019, 12:35
We’ve seen this unpunished many, many times before. OK so it didn’t always result in the same outcome as this, but it’s open wheel racing where mm’s make a difference of a light knock or a car in the air.
Harsh, but it could also be a sing of things to come from the new race director.
DAllein (@)
14th April 2019, 12:38
Mr.Tost, but this just a lie!
Kvyat didn’t get hit from behind! He understeered into Sainz, then rammed Norris, all because he clumsily chose the most inappropriate line he could!
You may of course defend him now, but you will probably drop him in another 2-3 races.
OOliver
14th April 2019, 17:48
Norris was not on the race track so the Norris incident was more Norris than Kvyat, as he rejoined the track in an unsafe manner
anon
15th April 2019, 7:15
OOliver, for what it is worth, Norris himself has held back on criticising Kvyat or apportioning blame for that collision – it’s mainly just Sainz who has been complaining.
Brolloks (@brolloks)
15th April 2019, 5:52
I was under the illusion he was hit by a Racing Point from behind as well. But never did we get to see any onboard footage from Stroll’s car. Kvyat’s moment of understeer seemed to be way to snappy to be “natural”, as if it was rather caused by something external, i.e. being tagged by a pink car directly behind him.
P.S. Who was the driver steward?
DAllein (@)
15th April 2019, 8:09
He was not.
There’s enough footage to show RP was meters behind.
Check this on YouTube (if it will not be taken down) “F1 2019 Chinese Grand Prix Crash Norris & Kvyat Collide With Carlos Saniz McLaren & Toro Rosso” – 0:41-0:42 mark and 1:10-1:12, Torpedo just slides into Sainz, and then rams Norris.
Brolloks (@brolloks)
15th April 2019, 11:55
Thanks! I could see clearly from the first mark you referred to (the video is still there).
anon
18th April 2019, 21:52
@dallein, it does rather seem that it is basically just yourself that is arguing so aggressively against Kvyat – even the stewards who awarded the original penalty seem to have since admitted to Kvyat that they made the wrong decision and gave a penalty that was overly harsh in relation to comparable first lap incidents.
FreddyVictor
15th April 2019, 10:41
OK, so looking at video from all 3 drivers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Xw2MqyJwKc
I would say it’s an unfair penalty
Yes, Kvyat did have a small oversteer moment but really, a drive-thru for that ????
erikje
14th April 2019, 12:40
Strange such a harsh penalty for a racing incident. It looks like the stewards wanted to specifically warn the torpedo for his driving style. Not good and very inconsistent steward ing.
Bleu (@bleu)
14th April 2019, 13:02
Drive through was very harsh but I would have understood 5 or 10 seconds for the incident.
KaIIe (@kaiie)
14th April 2019, 13:06
Having seen the onboard from both Sainz’s and Kvyat’s cars, it looks more like Kvyat “lost control” of his car (i.e. corrected the slide) well before the contact, and once the slide was corrected he just sort of drifted towards the left side of the track, making contact with the McLaren.
Bart
14th April 2019, 16:26
Having seen footage from the trackside camera filming the incident from behind it is clear that the incident was caused by Lando Norris, reentering the track in an unsafe manner.
Lando overshot the previous corner and was rejoining the track just ahead of his teammate Carlos Sainz, who steered hard right and narrowly missed Norris’ right rear tire. Straight into Kvyat…
You want to line up on the left at that point, preparing to take the narrowing corner. But you have to leave space for casr on the outside. There was more than a cars width, so no problem there. Except for Sainz cutting in to avoid Norris…
Once the two hit both drifted outward and Kvyat uncontrollably collected Norris.
This was indeed a sandwich, with Carlos the meat and Norris the offroading outer slice.
I wonder what I missed that made the stewards deal out this penalty. I hope they’ll explain.
swh1386 (@swh1386)
14th April 2019, 15:18
I also thought the penalty wash harsh for this incident. Although I’ve never particularly liked Kvyat and it looks to me like his previous track record was considered when applying the penalty.
I think Kvyat is a driver who has had his chance in F1, and should never have been considered over younger talent trying to make their big breaks. So far this season I have seen no real change to the Danil of old
koddamn (@gufdamm)
14th April 2019, 18:43
I’m curious to find out how you feel about Kimi and Robert returning to F1, taking the place of younger talents trying to make their big breaks. Daniil has been more promising than Gasly so far this season.
swh1386 (@swh1386)
14th April 2019, 21:05
Kimi and Robert are world class talents with buckets of charisma
koddamn (@gufdamm)
14th April 2019, 22:00
Your argument is poor. You said yourself you never liked Kvyat, you’re biased. Kvyat did nothing wrong. Lando returned to the track in an unsafe manner, sandwiching his team mate causing this collision. I could argue Sainz should have backed off, as he saw what was coming. Kvyat was on the inside, ahead of Sainz. Lando is off track so he is irrelevant.
Robert and Kimi have nothing more to gain still being in F1.
Basil (@flyingbasil)
15th April 2019, 9:33
@swh1386 Robert? Could you please explain why so many people think he is that great? What am i missing?
Yaru
14th April 2019, 15:49
Extremely harsh penalty, especially for a lap one incident.
F1oSaurus (@)
14th April 2019, 17:26
We see so many of these incidents go unpunished or punished to a much lesser extent. For instance, Vettel got a 5 second penalty for understeering into Bottas in France 2018 and no penalty at all for understeering into Verstappen and Hamilton in Mexico 2017 or for understeering into Hamilton in Monza 2018.
Ivan B (@njoydesign)
14th April 2019, 17:56
something bad to be done about this kind of stewarding. it’s unacceptable. Why is there so much secrecy all the time about their decisions? Why can’t they come out and report in a detailed manner as to why they dished this or that penalty? Is it too much work? I think they are paid enough and should be asked accordingly. This was an extremely harsh penalty for a simple 1st lap racing incident. Very unfair to the drivers and to us, the fans.
I may be biased, but in my opinion there was enough room for 2 cars, Sainz and Kvyat. Norris was off the track and in his eagerness to return was the actual cause of the whole mess.
José Lopes da Silva
14th April 2019, 18:09
No need for punishment, it was a racing incident…
…caused by Kvyat, the common denominator in first lap crashes. Norris was returning in an unsafe manner? This is not a nineties videogame, where computer cars waited for the entire field to go by before rejoining the track.
koddamn (@gufdamm)
14th April 2019, 18:46
It isn’t a videogame. Its real life where lives are at stake. He returned in an unsafe manner.
faulty (@faulty)
15th April 2019, 16:21
Is there any evidence that Michael Masi did not call Lando to the side and had a heartfelt talk with him?
I don’t know if his move warranted a reprimand or a suspended penalty, but it defo warranted some explaining.
James (@knewman)
14th April 2019, 20:41
Have to agree with them, quite a harsh ruling from the stewards. However, at the same time I’m wondering why Kvyatt is back in F1.
koddamn (@gufdamm)
14th April 2019, 22:02
Because he is quick.
mmertens (@mmertens)
15th April 2019, 3:33
Racing incident, no penalty was needed. Kvyat lost grip (probably old tires), tried to correct, but it was really close to other cars.Lando also tried to return to the track too early to avoid losing more positions, he took a risk and it didn’t work. Over stewarding, not needed and against the attitude from 2 first races regarding penalties which were much better.
mmertens (@mmertens)
15th April 2019, 3:34
Cold tires!!! Hate auto correct
Ahmad Albashrawi (@abashrawi)
15th April 2019, 5:39
In my opinion, this penalty was almost criminal. First, it was a first lap incident. Secondly, all parties played part in the making of it:
1. Lando Norris ran wide in the corner, compromising his line and giving opportunity for others.
2. Carlos Sainz, seeing an opportunity, went for the gap created by Lando running wide.
3. Kvyat had and oversteer and was trying to correct it.
4. Lando then tried to rejoin, forcing Sainz to steer towards Kvyat who in turn was already steering towards him.
5. Bang! Big collision between the three drivers.
How can you conclude that it was 100% Kvyat’s fault is beyond me. If they gave him a 5 second penalty I would let it go, but a drive through which let’s not forget is equivalent to 25 second is a bad joke. It made me furious because it feels like stewards are singling him out for something way beyound the incident itself.
Optimus prime
15th April 2019, 7:05
The penalty was unfair. It eas just a racing incident.
Electroball76
15th April 2019, 12:39
It was a torpedo sandwich of course
PeterF
16th April 2019, 7:27
Kvyat did have a wobble and then drifted out to the left a bit too much.
Norris had a wobble on a kerband started reentering the track albeit slowly.
Sainz was sandwidched in the middle and bumped into the both other cars. He DID lift off, you can even see him locking up his brakes, but it was already too late.
I disagree with the penalty as well, but to be fair, you can’t say Daniil did nothing wrong and blame Sainz