09/05/2024
NEWS STORY
5 second penalty for causing a collision with Oscar Piastri sees Carlos Sainz drop to fifth as Sergio Perez is promoted to fourth.
Sainz was overtaking the McLaren at Turn 17 when he lost the rear slightly and collided with the Australian, the incident resulting in damage to the front wing of Piastri's car which effectively ended his race.
It was clear to the stewards that Sainz was to blame for the collision as in the overtake attempt he braked late, missed the apex and in the process lost the rear of the car, with the resulting collision.
Piastri was trying to turn in to counter the overtaking attempt, and gave sufficient room to the Spaniard.
In the circumstances, the stewards found Sainz to be predominantly to blame for the collision as they took into account, as mitigating factors, the fact that but for the slight loss of control of the rear by the Ferrari driver, the collision would likely not have happened and it would have been hard but good racing.
The standard penalty for a collision is 10 seconds with 2 penalty points, however in light of the mitigating circumstances, the stewards imposed a 5 second time penalty with 1 penalty point.
Though fourth at the flag the 5 seconds dropped the Spaniard to fifth.
Ironically, just a handful of laps before the incident, as the pair battled for fourth, Sainz insisted that Piastri had left the track and gained an advantage, the Spaniard making repeated calls for the Australian to either hand the position back or be penalised.
However the stewards deemed that there had been no such transgression by the Australian.
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