Carlos Sainz became the recipient of a rare penalty at the Formula 1 British Grand Prix, amid confusion through a Safety Car in the latter stages of the race.
The Williams driver was hit with an unusual penalty for overtaking the Safety Car, after being one of several drivers to do so when they were allowed to unlap themselves.
However, Sainz was not included in the listed lapped cars due to the unusual layout of the Silverstone pit lane.
The Stewards found that although the Spaniard had been a lap down when entering the pits under the Safety Car, the layout of the pit lane meant that he had effectively regained that lap by the time he crossed the timing line again.
As a result, he was not officially a lapped car at the time Race Control instructed lapped cars to overtake the safety car. The Williams team accepted that it had made two mistakes. By failing to realise Sainz was not eligible to unlap himself at that point, and also missing that his car number was not included in the list of lapped cars.
Unique ‘1 penalty lap’ punishment
Due to the confusion, Sainz overtook the safety car and gained a lap he was not entitled to. The Stewards decided the appropriate penalty in this scenario was a ‘penalty lap’. Meaning 1 lap was added to Sainz’s time and dropped him from 12th to 17th.
Whilst a rare penalty, the FIA report stated that this is one of the penalties available to them. Sainz is the first driver to receive this particular sanction.
The FIA report read: “The Stewards are satisfied that the penalty lap is one of the penalties available to them under the FIA International Sporting Code and considered it to be the most appropriate penalty in the circumstances of this case.”
Sainz was still the highest placing Williams driver at Silverstone. Teammate Alex Albon retired from the race on lap 43 with damage from his opening lap collision with Oliver Bearman.
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