Fernando Alonso has been handed a 10-second time penalty and three penalty points for causing a collision with Carlos Sainz in the Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix Sprint.
Alonso found himself defending third position for the majority of Saturday morning’s Sprint before Carlos Sainz launched a challenge on Lap 16.
The pair went side by side through multiple corners before Alonso dived inside Sainz at Turn 9, sending the pair wide as they made contact.
Alonso retired with a puncture and Sainz carried on to finish fifth with damage and after a lengthy investigation, the Stewards have deemed Alonso culpable.
“The Stewards heard from the driver of Car 14 (Fernando Alonso), the driver of Car 55 (Carlos Sainz), team representatives and reviewed positioning/marshalling system data, video and in-car video evidence and determined that Car 14 caused a collision with Car 55 at Turn 9,” the ruling began.
“As per the guidelines on driving standards, which was agreed with the teams, an infringement of this nature required that a baseline penalty of 10 seconds was to be added to the time of a car that caused a collision.”
A peculiar letter of the law however means the 10-second penalty will not be carried into Sunday’s Grand Prix, following Alonso’s Sprint DNF, meaning the Spaniard only carries the three penalty points moving forward.
“Article 54.3 of the Sporting Regulations states if the 10 second penalty is imposed after the end of a sprint session, then 10 seconds will be added to the elapsed time of the driver concerned,” wrote the stewards.
“We accordingly added 10 seconds to the elapsed time of Car 14. As an aside to the FIA, we note that the language in the regulations as to when a car has retired and the resultant consequences on penalties that may be imposed or served, especially when that car is otherwise classified, is somewhat unclear and we would recommend that the FIA considers making the necessary amendments to bring greater clarity to this issue.”
Alonso adjudged the incident between him and Sainz to be “OK,” saying that “it was tough racing and a couple of corners parallel to each other, wheel to wheel battle, and at the end someone has to give up.
“I gave up at Turn 8, the racing line, to avoid contact and he didn’t give up in Turn 9 and we didn’t avoid the contact.”
Sainz meanwhile had a slightly different view.
“I think I did a really good move around the outside of Turn 7,” he began.
“I think from then on he decided to be all or nothing into Turn 9, which cost us both the race because I think I picked up damage and a lot of dirt in my tyre from that optimistic move.”
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