Carlos Sainz has been handed a 5-place grid penalty for the F1 Mexico City GP after a collision with Kimi Antonelli on lap 6 of the US GP this afternoon.
The Spanaird, who finished a stonking P3 in the Sprint, looked fast in the race. He overtook Ollie Bearman on the second lap. Into turn 15 on the Italian four laps later, he tried to get the job done again. However, he tagged the Mercedes driver and spun him around.
While Kimi Antonelli managed to keep going and finished in P13 after dropping to the back, Carlos Sainz was out of the race as he sustained damage to the right front corner of his FW47.
The stewards did not agree with Carlos Sainz’s assessment of the incident with Kimi Antonelli, handing him a 5-place drop for next Sunday’s F1 Mexico City GP. He now has four points on his licence.
Stewards verdict on Carlos Sainz and Kimi Antonelli collision
“Car 55 attempted an inside overtake on Car 12 at Turn 15 and a collision between the two cars occurred at the apex.
“The driver of Car 55 maintained that he had expected the driver of Car 12 to leave him space at the apex but Car 12 turned in early and Car 55 locked brakes when it became clear that a collision was unavoidable. He suggested that the Driver of Car 12 ought to have anticipated an overtake attempt by Car 55 and left space to avoid contact.
“However, at no point prior to the apex was the front axle of Car 55 alongside or ahead of the mirror of Car 12.
“Therefore, according to the Driving Standards Guidelines, Car 55 had not earned a right to be left space at the apex. The Stewards therefore determine that the Driver of Car 55 was predominatly to blame for the collision and a penalty is applied accordingly.
“As the driver to be penalized did not finish the race a grid penalty equalling a 10- seconds time penalty is imposed.”
