Sainz Sanctioned: Grid Penalty for Crash at the US Grand Prix
The driver Carlos Sainz has been penalized with five positions on the grid for the Mexican Grand Prix, following an incident at the United States Grand Prix. The crash occurred with Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s Mercedes during Sunday’s race. Sainz was trying to overtake Antonelli for seventh place at Turn 15, but locked the brakes, causing contact at the apex. The incident forced Sainz to retire from the race due to the damage to his car. Antonelli, for his part, fell in the classification, although he finally managed to recover to thirteenth position. According to the stewards’ guidelines on racing incidents, Sainz was deemed guilty of the crash and received a 10-second time penalty, as well as two penalty points on his super license.
In the statement, it was detailed that Sainz argued that he expected Antonelli to leave him space at the apex, but that Antonelli entered earlier than expected, which forced Sainz to lock the brakes to avoid a collision. The stewards determined that Sainz was primarily responsible for the incident.“Car number 55 [Sainz] attempted an overtake on the inside of car number 12 [Antonelli] at turn 15 and a collision occurred between the two cars at the apex,” the stewards explained in a statement.
