Credit: Aston Martin F1
Fernando Alonso received a 10-second penalty and three penalty points on his licence for a collision with Carlos Sainz. The clash, which occurred in the final laps of the race, led to Alonso retiring after he was forced to pit due to a puncture.
Alonso and Sainz were intensely contesting third place as they navigated through deteriorating tyre conditions. The incident took place at Turn 9, just two laps before the finish when their battle for position resulted in contact between the two cars.
Following the race, the stewards called both drivers to review the incident and concluded that Alonso could have avoided the collision. Despite Alonso’s retirement, the stewards followed standard protocol by adding 10 seconds to his race time, a decision that highlighted an anomaly in the current regulations, prompting them to recommend that the FIA review and clarify the rules regarding penalties for retired vehicles.
The official statement from the stewards explained,
“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. We accordingly added 10 seconds to the elapsed time of Car 14.”
The incident stirred up reactions from both camps. Speaking to Spanish channel DAZN, Alonso felt that Sainz had not provided enough room on the track, leading to the unavoidable contact.
“Turn 7, I think we were evenly matched, then in Turn 8 I tried to go to the outside,” Alonso recounted. “But he opened the line to not leave me room, so in Turn 9 I did the same thing he did in Turn 8. I tried to go to the inside to not leave him room on the line, but in Turn 8 I opened up so we didn’t touch, and in Turn 9 he didn’t open up. So we touched.”
With these three additional penalty points, Alonso now accumulates a total of six penalty points over the past 12 months, adding more pressure as the season progresses.
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